Angel of Mercy
by WhatTheF-ckHaveYouDoneLately
Summary: When Damon is almost killed, he doesn't expect one very human girl to find him, let alone save his life. Inspired by OneRepublic's "Angel of Mercy." Rated T for language purposes.
1. How Did You Find Me?

**Damon**

I had the deep feeling of being followed.

I looked over my shoulder and saw Alaric Saltzman. He had fury in his eyes and I saw that he was on a warpath. I could see the vervain dart in his hand and what I liked to call his Van Helsing gun in his other hand. It was a very lethal gun that shot stakes.

"What do you want, Alaric?" I asked, stopping dead in my tracks and turning to face him. I could mock him for being human all day long, but I would not underestimate him.

"I am sick and tired of you being in this town." He spat, holding up the gun. Damon easily danced out of the way of the stake and smiled at the teacher triumphantly.

"You think you're something else, don't you, Damon Salvatore?" He asked, cocking his head.

"I know I'm something else." I said with a wicked smile.

"I know I'm no match for you. And that is why I didn't come alone." He said, motioning around us with his hand. _Ah, hell_ I thought to myself as I looked around. It was the Founder's Council. Sherriff Forbes, Mayor Lockwood, a few people I didn't recognize.

I accepted the fact I was outnumbered and cornered. I was standing on the sidewalk in downtown Mystic Falls at 2 a.m. No one was here.

"Goodbye, Damon." Alaric said, and motioned with his hand. Then I felt stakes and vervain penetrate my body. I collapsed to the sidewalk in an unconscious, dying heap.

**P.O.V Change**

"Oh my god." I whispered as I looked out my window. All I saw was the man collapse. He'd been shot with something or tranquilized. I couldn't tell which because I could only see him. I wouldn't have even seen him had he not fallen under a streetlamp. He'd fallen unconscious when he'd fallen and looked whiter than any person should even have the capability. I stood up and began unlatching my window.

_He could have been shot because he's a psycho! You're terrified, why don't you just close the window and go back to bed! That man is dying out there on a sidewalk! _All of these thoughts blared through my head as I swung out of window and hit the ground on my feet. I took off at a dead run across the street and kneeled beside the man when I reached him. He was on his side, so I could plainly see the four stakes protruding from his chest. Jeez, did people think he was a vampire or something? Shaking my head and trying not to throw up, I began pulling the first wooden stake from his body. He cried out in pain as I pulled it free and met my eyes with pain filled blue ones. That was what made up my mind. Not the pain in his eyes, not the way he'd cried out. It was the way he just closed his eyes, as if he had nothing to live for. It made me want to sob for him.

"Why are you out here at 2 a.m.?" I asked, trying to keep him awake.

"I'm a vampire that couldn't sleep. What's your excuse?" He asked through a half smile. My eyes widened at the word "vampire." _Vampires aren't real! This guy is crazy! _I thought frantically, staring down at him. I simply decided that even if he was insane, he was harmless in this state. So I pulled him across my lap and began pulling the stakes out. He looked up at me all the while, panting with exhaustion and pain. His face was even whiter than I'd thought, and it stood out in stark contrast against his dark hair. He closed his eyes and his body relaxed. He was dying. I fought tears as I stroked his dark hair.

"What's your name?" I asked, trying to keep him awake.

"Damon Salvatore." He whispered, barely speaking through the pain.

"Hi, Damon. I'm A.J." I told him, trying to act like it was a perfectly normal introduction and he wasn't a slightly crazy guy who thought he was a vampire dying in my arms.

"Hello, A.J." He whispered, his voice fading. His body slumped and panic took over me. I had no idea why I was panicking so bad. I felt like a part of me was dying with him. I felt tears slide silently down my cheeks as I pulled his head onto my shoulder, which lolled limply.

"Damon, wake up." I said, shaking his shoulders. He didn't respond.

"Damon, please." I said, a frantic sob escaping me. I pressed my fingers against the side of his neck where I should be able to detect a pulse. Nothing. He was dead.

I sobbed so violently I thought I would never stop.

Then, with tears still streaming down my face, I decided that if he wanted to pretend he was a vampire, then he should look like a vampire when he died. I grabbed my hairpin out of my hair and jabbed myself with it until I bled. I prodded and pulled until I had my index finger dark with blood. I drug my finger across his mouth, making him look every inch a vampire that had went down fighting. I didn't care that he was crazy.

I held him in my arms until the sun came up, but after that I realized I had to call someone. Damon had to have some sort of family. But I'd left my cell phone in my room, so I had to leave him briefly. We were on the deserted end of downtown, so there was no risk of him being found before I could get back to him.

**Damon**

I licked my lips on instinct. Blood was what I tasted on them, and I had never felt anything so good in my life. I was too weak to sit or stand or even prop myself up on my elbows, but I managed to turn my head to look for A.J.

I remembered her vividly. Her clear gray eyes, her waist length light blond hair, the way she'd looked so desperate as she stroked my hair. Now the sun was up, and I was alone. After a lot of gasping out in pain, I finally forced myself to my feet. _She saved my life_, I thought to myself. Trying to stop myself from thinking of the girl who had held me while I seemingly dying, I turned into a crow and disappeared.

**A.J.**

I walked back outside with my phone in my hand, but the sidewalk was empty. I looked down at a black crow feather on the ground where he'd been and picked it up. There was a stirring deep in my soul that told me that somewhere, Damon was alive.

"_Angel of Mercy, how did you find me? How did you pick me up again? Angel of Mercy, how did you move me? Why am I on my feet again?"_

~One Republic


	2. You've Begun To Feel Like Home

****Okay, so I changed A.J.'s hair color from light brown to blond, because I couldn't find a young enough actress with light brown hair to use in my fan fiction trailer****

**A.J.**

I sat at my desk, trying to concentrate on my History paper, though it didn't do any good. Because all I kept seeing was two piercing blue eyes, all I kept feeling was silky dark hair between my fingers, all I kept hearing was his voice. I tired to stop, but I couldn't. I heard a glass break and realized my uncle was drunk. Again. My parents had divorced, went their own ways, and left me with my uncle.

I stared down at my index finger, which still had a long, rugged cut on it from the previous night. Suddenly feeling frustrated, I slammed my history book closed and crawled in bed. I grabbed by MP3 player and started flipping through songs until I found something I could fall asleep to. "Look After You" by the Fray lulled me to sleep, but my last waking thought was remembering holding Damon in my arms as he died.

**Damon**

I opened the window and slid in, having no idea what the hell I was doing. Tracking her had been easy, but I still don't know what the hell I thought I was doing in her bedroom. She was sprawled out in jeans and a tank top on top of her blankets, sleeping soundly. I cocked my head, and with my vampire hearing, tried to figure out what song she was listening to on the MP3 player she had on. I identified the song as The Fray's "Look After You." I walked over and, careful not to wake her, sat on the side of her bed. I put almost none of my weight on the mattress, and I knew if she started stirring I could disappear out the open window and lock it before she even woke up. I reached out and pushed a lock of her long hair out of her face. Looking at her, I realized how striking she was. She had smooth, ivory colored skin, waist length light blond hair, and clear gray eyes with little flecks of blue and green in them. I remembered the color of her eyes even though right now they were closed. I leaned over and pressed my lips against her forehead.

"Sleep well, A.J." I said against her skin.

I disappeared before she even knew I'd been there to begin with.

**A.J.**

I showed up at the boardinghouse, praying I was at the right place. I'd asked around, and a blond girl named Caroline had told me that the Salvatore brothers lived at the "really big old boarding house" was how she had put it. So, here I was, having no idea what I was doing. I knocked on the door, and a guy who looked about my age (which is seventeen, by the way) with green eyes and a brooding forehead answered the door.

"Hello." He said, brooding at her.

"Hi. My name is A.J., I'm looking for Damon." I said, his brooding/staring thing making me nervous.

"He's at Mystic Grill or on his way home, but I'll tell him you stopped by. Oh, I'm Stefan, by the way." He said, extending his hand.

"It was nice to meet you, Stefan." I smiled, shaking his hand. I nodded my goodbye and retreated to my car, sighing in frustration. I would have liked to have seen Damon. But at least now I'd heard verbal confirmation that he was alive. And even though I'd somehow known he was alive, Damon's brother (or at least I assumed Stefan was Damon's brother) confirming it helped more than he knew.

I drove home and went in the house, still filled with relief.

Or at least I was until Uncle Darwin got home.

**Damon**

Stefan was on the couch reading when I got home.

"Hello, little brother." I said sarcastically, plopping down in the armchair next to the couch.

"One of your playthings came by looking for you." Stefan muttered without preamble. Damon cocked an eyebrow and looked up at Sir Broody.

"Beg your pardon?" I asked, folding my arms and propping my feet on the coffee table.

"Some blonde girl came here looking for you. Said her name was Amy or Ally or-"

"A.J.?" I asked, cutting him off and getting to my feet.

"Yeah, her." Stefan said, going back to his book. I grabbed my jacket, which I'd taken off as I'd come in the house, and took off out the door. I got into my GTO and pulled out of the driveway, all the while wondering why she wanted to see me. I pulled up in front of her house and arrived at the door in a blur of motion. I knocked and waited until A.J. answered it. Damn it, why couldn't I get over how damn pretty she was?

"You came." She whispered, blinking once.

"I'm not all that surprised that you sought me out. Like all women, you just can't get enough of me." I said, my lip curling up into that cocky half smile that reduced all women to quivering puddles.

A.J. just crossed her arms and scoffed. "Don't flatter yourself." She said, stepping back in implication I could come in. I stepped over the threshold, looking around. She didn't need to invite me in, simply because I'd been in this house once around a century ago. Of course, an entirely different family had been living there at the time, but I'd still been invited.

"Look, don't let this go to your head. I just wanted to see that you were okay." She said, sitting on the couch and motioning for me to do the same. I sat down and propped my feet on her lap, which she promptly shoved off. I sighed at her stubbornness.

"Well, as you can tell, I look _very_ good." I said, meeting her eyes. She just sighed and shook her head at me. Then we both heard a car pull up and her eyes widened briefly.

"My room. Now." She said, grabbing my hand and pulling me along behind her as she half walked, half ran down the hallway.

I almost made an innuendo at her so desperately pulling me into her room, but the panic in her eyes shut me right up.

She sat down on the bed and tried and failed to look calm.

"A.J., what's wrong?" I asked, sitting next to her and forcing her to look at me by putting my hands on either side of her face and turning her towards me. The concern for her I felt was immediate and I reacted almost on instinct.

"Nothing." She said, though I didn't buy it one little bit.

"Tell me." I said, looking deep in her eyes. And though it would have been easy, I didn't even try to compel her. I figured that was the least I could do since she had, after all, saved my life.

"It's nothing. Really." She said, looking away. She moved her eyes from mine, but I was still holding her so that she couldn't turn her head.

"A.J., you saved my life. You saw a side of me you never should have had to. You can tell me _anything_." I said, brushing her hair out of her face. The gesture was simple and affectionate and felt oddly natural.

"I know, Damon. But just because I came out there last night does not mean you owe me anything." She said, and I realized offhandedly I liked the way she said my name. I also realized that for some reason, she didn't trust me. Hell, I didn't think she trusted much of anyone.

"I know that." I said simply, though I didn't mean it. Of course I owed her. I owed her my life, as melodramatic as that sounds.

She gave me a look that said she knew I was lying but didn't say anything. I could tell by the way she anxiously tapped her fingers on her knee and the way she glanced around the room that she wanted to be alone.

"I have to go, but if you _ever_ need anything, just give me a call, okay?" I said, writing my cell phone number on a sheet of blank notebook paper that was laying on her desk.

She nodded and smiled and I thought I saw a glimmer of fear in her eyes, but when I looked at her again, it was gone.

"_It's always have and never hold, you've begun to feel like home. What's mine is yours to leave or take. What's mine is yours to make your own."_

~The Fray


	3. Don't Stop, Don't Change, Stay Beautiful

_**A.J.**_

"_I can't be tamed…" I sang along with some Miley Cyrus song on the radio as I drove to school on Monday. I hated Miley Cyrus. I sighed and turned off the radio._

"_Great. You're distracted again. By a guy who's not even your boyfriend!" I told myself as I turned in to the parking lot. I loved my boyfriend, even if Andrew was simple and safe. He had dark blond hair, brown eyes, and he was a tad antisocial. But so what? I trusted him, so that's all that mattered. We'd been dating for a full year now and he hadn't even pressured me at all about sleeping with him. _

_I was startled out of my thoughts when my phone beeped, telling me I had a new text message. I pulled into a parking space, pulling my keys out of the ignition, and pulled my cell phone out of my pocket. The text message was from Damon._

_Miley Cyrus? Seriously? _It read, much to my confusion.

_How did you know I was just listening to her on my radio? _I sent back.

"Cause' I'm right here." Damon said, propping his elbows on the console and nearly giving me a heart attack. Apparently he'd been in my backseat since I'd left the house. And odds are he'd heard me talking to myself about being distracted by a guy who's not my boyfriend.

"Damon! Don't ever scare me like that again." I said, still trying to get my breath.

"Sorry." He said, getting out through the backseat and opening my door for me.

"Thanks." I said as I got out of the car. He nodded and held out his arm. I looked up at him, my face a question mark.

"It's okay, I don't bite anymore." He said with a wicked little smile.

"Anymore?" I asked, reluctantly taking his arm. He just shrugged and continued walking me up to the school.

"Are you stalking me or something?" I asked as he let me go once we were at the main doors.

"Stalking?" He said, looking mock offended.

"Yes, stalking." I said, but my half smile took the edge out of my words. He was a hard person not to smile around.

"If memory serves, then _you_ came and found _me_ at _my_ house." He said, crossing his arms.

"Alright, fine. We're stalking each other." I said, resting my hand on the door to the school.

"Hmm. Stalking each other. That could make for an… _interesting_ habit." He said with a cocky half smile that seemed permanently affixed on his face.

"Do not start with the innuendoes, because I for one do not feel like tolerating them." I said, folding my arms over my chest and looking up at him. He wasn't insanely taller than me, but I still I had to look up.

"You're a snarky little thing, aren't you?" He asked, taking a step forward. Instead of stumbling back like I wanted to, I stood my ground. I leaned in close to his face and whispered to him five words before I disappeared into the school.

"Wouldn't you like to know."

**Damon**

_And she said I was the one making innuendoes_, I thought to myself as I turned into a crow and flew off. I just didn't understand why she was effecting me so much. I materialized into a human as I landed on the sidewalk. Looking around, I decided to head to the mall and mess around for a little while.

Three hours later, I was in a jewelry store, having no idea why.

I'd had to leave Mystic Falls to find a mall, and I'd been walking around aimlessly for the past two and a half hours. I peered into the glass cases, knowing I could afford anything I wanted in this store.

Suddenly a necklace caught my eye. It was a platinum chain with a teardrop shaped sapphire on it. The cashier must have noticed me looking at it, because he walked over and gave me a friendly smile.

"Can I help you with something, sir?" He asked.

"Yes. I'd like to buy this necklace." I said, pointing my finger at it.

And, five minutes later, I had a beautiful necklace and a credit card less a hell of a lot of money.

I tucked the box in my jacket and started the drive home.

**A.J.**

"Who was the sexy dude in the leather jacket?" Sam practically squealed between first and second period. My best friend and I hadn't had time to talk before my first class because I'd spent so long outside talking to Damon. Sam Tanner was beautiful and exotic, with black hair, tan skin, and large brown eyes. Guys hang all over her, and she loves it.

"His name is Damon." I said, pulling books from my locker.

"What about Andrew?" She asked, leaning against the locker beside mine.

"Damon is just a friend." I said, closing my locker.

"A really hot friend!" She said persistently.

"He is _only_ my friend." I insisted, waving my hand to silence her as Andrew came up.

"Morning, beautiful." He said, giving me a quick kiss.

"Hey, Andrew." I said, glancing over at Sam, who was begrudgingly staying silent.

"So, who was that guy you were on the verge of making out with this morning?" He said, his voice going hard and cold.

"Making out with? Andrew, what in the hell are you talking about?" I said, my brow furrowing.

"You were on the verge of kissing him. I saw it." He said, clenching his jaw. I was about to ask him where he was getting that when I remembered the way I'd leaned towards Damon before I'd come inside the school.

"His name is Damon and he is _just_ my friend." I said, feeling like this was the conversation with Sam all over again.

"Whatever, A.J." He said, walking off towards his class. I stood there in shock. _Who was this guy and what has he done with Andrew? _I thought to myself as I stared after him. Andrew had always been kind and gentle and sweet. Sam just seemed to think it was funny.

After school, Andrew was nowhere in sight. Which was a major problem because my car wouldn't start. I asked Sam to drive me home, but she had cheerleading practice. I had decided to tough it out and walk when my saving grace in a GTO pulled up. Damon got out of the car and opened the passenger side door for me. Okay, so maybe most white night's armor doesn't consist of a black leather jacket and their noble steeds aren't usually a pale blue GTO, but I would take what I could get.

When I got in the car, instead of pulling out of the parking lot, Damon pulled out a black velvet box and held it out to me.

I feel sure my face was a big WTF as I opened the box. Inside of it, nested in white silk, was the most beautiful necklace I'd ever seen. It had a platinum chain and a teardrop shaped sapphire hung off it."Damon, it's amazing." I said, trying not to get choked up. I normally don't wear jewelry, but this was an exception. He smiled and took the necklace out of my hands and motioned for me to turn towards him. When I turned towards him, he reached around me an clasped it around my neck, and I felt slightly overwhelmed at his closeness.

"I was hoping I could get to you before you left." He said, leaning away.

"Trust me, I wasn't going anywhere. My car wouldn't start." I said, leaning back into my seat.

"Well wasn't my arrival convenient, then?" He said with his cocky smile.

I simply smiled and shook my head at him. I reached over and turned on the radio, flipping through stations until I found something I figured we could agree on. We ended up listening to Stay Beautiful by the Last Goodnight, which along began singing along to.

"That's ironic." He said when the song went off.

"What?" I asked, turning to face him.

"Read your necklace when you get in the house." He said as we pulled up at my house.

"Um, okay. Thank you for bringing me home." I said, smiling.

"No problem." He said, smiling right back. I watched him as he pulled off, and then I went in the house and plopped down on my bed. My uncle wasn't home yet, much to my pleasure. I help up the sapphire to the light and read the front of it.

It was engraved with the words "stay beautiful."

"_Don't stop, don't change, stay beautiful. One life, today you're irresistible. Get up, get out, stay wonderful. All this time is waiting for you."_

~The Last Goodnight


	4. Near To You, I'm Healing

**Damon**

I slipped in her window that night while she slept, making sure she was wearing her necklace. I still didn't understand why I wanted so badly to keep her safe. I sighed in relief when my eye caught the smooth, platinum chain around her neck. The sapphire that hung from that chain was coated in a thick layer of vervain that was so thick that some would remain even if the necklace somehow got wet. A small smile curving my lips, I walked over to stand beside her bed. I remember the light in her eyes today when she'd pulled out that necklace. And, standing there, I realize how strong she is. I don't know how I know this, all I know is she is.

I watched the way she clasped the pendant between her fingers like it was a lifeline.

"Damon." She whispered, making my brow furrow. She was still asleep when she said it. Then her face, which had been relaxed in sleep, tightened. Her soft whimpers turned to screams, and I decided to wake her up, not caring that I'd have to explain that I was in her bedroom at 2 a.m.

I shook her until her eyes flew open. Her eyes were bloodshot and look haunted. Her entire body shook when she sat up, and I later decided I was acting on instinct when I took her in my arms. She buried her face in my chest, too shaken to ask why I was even in her bedroom to begin with.

"Don't leave me." She whispered, her fingers clutching the back of my jacket. Not letting go of her, I kicked my shoes off and they landed beside the bed with a soft thump.

And, still not releasing her, I pulled her down beside me as I leaned back. I stretched out, and she curled up against my side.

"It's okay, A.J." I whispered as she pulled her head up on my chest.

"It is now." She said right before she fell asleep.

**A.J.**

I woke up to find myself curled up next to Damon. He was asleep but still holding on to me. I couldn't help but notice how peaceful he looked when he was asleep. I was too busy trying not to relive the nightmare he'd woken me up from to wonder why he'd been in my room in the first place. I smiled gently and brushed his hair from his face and what seemed like fire flicked under my skin. I had to blink to clear my head. I had never gotten such a strong reaction in myself from anyone. Not even Andrew. My reaction terrified me. I ran my index finger along his jaw line, feeling the fire flicking deep in my skin. _I'm a vampire…_ the words he'd said that first night rang out in my ears. It was hard to see anything crazy in him, he seemed so sane. But there was no such thing as vampires. And I didn't even realize I was leaning over him until my pendant brushed against his face. It burned the skin with a soft hiss, making me jump back. Damon jolted awake and immediately put his hand to his face.

"I-I'm sorry. I don't know how that happened. My necklace…" I stuttered as I looked at the faint trace of steam rising from his face.

"It's no big deal. It's just the vervain." He muttered, still half asleep. He fell back asleep and I watched the burn on his face heal right before my eyes. I laid back down and stared at the ceiling. What the hell is vervain? And why had it burned my Damon?

Then I back up that thought, because Damon wasn't my _anything_. I'd already gone from thinking of him as "Damon" to "my Damon."

"This is going too far, too fast." I muttered, curling back up beside him and going back to sleep.

**Damon**

I decided to wait for A.J. to wake up before I left. I didn't want her waking up alone. I tried to brush this off as a side effect of me swearing to protect her, but deep down, I knew that was a lie.

"You're still here." A.J. whispered, smiling at me. Her smile made something twist in me that I didn't totally understand.

"I'll always be here." I said so softly under my breath that I could barely hear it. She got to her feet, pulled clothes out of the dresser, and before she disappeared into the bathroom, proved that she had in fact heard me.

"I know." She said, closing the bathroom door behind her.

**A.J.**

"I'll always be here." The words he had said rang in my ears as I got in the shower. There was something deep inside of me that was comforted by those words. For the first time in a long time, I felt safe. Or at least as safe as someone like me can.

After getting out of the shower, I toweled off my body and hair and cursed under my breath as I tried to pull a comb through my hair and it caught in a tangle.

"Something wrong in there?" Damon voice said from outside the door, causing me to nearly jump out of my skin.

"No, just have some tangles is all." I explained as I tried to separate one with my fingers.

"Are you dressed?" He asked.

"Um, yeah. Why?" I asked, swaying on my feet. Flashbacks flashed before me, and I didn't realize I'd been trembling so violently until I hit the ground. Damon rushed in and picked me up, looking at me with such a deep concern you'd think I'd screamed at the top of my lungs.

"I'm fine." I choked, holding on to him, my fingers clenched around his leather jacket.

"No, you're not, A.J." He said, sitting me on my bed.

"Please, don't make me explain. Please." I said, knowing he would probably run screaming when he found out how damaged I was. I wasn't ready to let him go yet.

"Okay. But later, I want to know." He said softly, sitting beside me and pulling out the comb that I'd dropped when I'd hit the ground. He leaned back against the headboard and opened his legs slightly, beckoning with his index finger. I rested my head and back against his chest and almost fell asleep again as he started gently pulling the tangles out with the comb. For someone so cocky, he was so… gentle. _I'm better near to you…_ the lyrics of a song by Fine Frenzy popped into my head as I felt him carefully pull the tangles out of my hair, not hurting me once. When the tangles were gone and the comb ran freely through my hair, he gently turned me so that my head rested on his shoulder. His hair softly brushed against my face and I was more than happy to let him encircle my waist with his arms. He ran his fingers through my hair, and the familiar firey response he always sparked in me perked up. Relaxing against him, I realized I would be happy to spend my entire Saturday like this. But I also figured stretching out on a bed with me for hours on end was probably not his idea of a fun day.

"Would you like to do something today?" I asked, my voice slightly muffles by his hair.

"Sure. Do you have something in mind?" He asked.

"We could drive to the mall a couple of towns over and mess around for a few hours." I suggested.

"Sounds like a plan. Let's go." He said, releasing his arms from my waist.

I happily slid my boots on and planned to spend the day with Damon.

"_I only know that I am better where you are, I only know that I belong where you are. Near to you, I am healing, but it's taking so long."_

~Fine Frenzy


	5. Look Past Everything I Have Ever Learned

**A.J.**

Damon and I walked around the mall for hours, talking about nothing and everything. I found myself smiling and relaxing in his presence. But that didn't stop me from feeling the sparks that flew from my skin wherever he touched me. I'd left Andrew a message saying I was going out with Sam and I'd called Sam so she could collaborate my story.

"Ooh, hot date with sexy stalker dude?" She'd asked, and I could practically hear her eyebrows lifting over the phone.

"No, it is not date. And his name is Damon." I informed her, trying to slow my heart rate, which accelerated whenever I even said his name.

She'd given me a disbelieving "uh-huh" and hung up.

"Hey, have you done one of those things?" I asked, motioning to one of the little photo booths that take four pictures of you and then spit them out at you.

"What? One of the cashiers?" He asked, peering into a store slightly to the left of the booth.

"No! The photo booth, genius." I said, slapping his arm.

"Um, no." He said, cocking his head.

"Well then, let's do it." I said, pulling him along behind me as I walked towards it. I tried unsuccessfully not to laugh as he tried to fold himself, with his long legs and broad shoulders, into the tiny little booth.

"This is not funny." He said, but he was laughing along with me.

"I have a solution." He said, grabbing me around the waist, picking me up, sitting down, and bringing me back down on his lap.

The first picture was of me and him smiling and the camera. Well, I was smiling and he was doing that cocky half smile thing. Number two was Damon and I holding up our intertwined fingers between us and smiling at the camera. The third was me playfully arching my neck and him pretending to bite me. When he looked up from my neck after the picture was taken, his face was… smoldering. That was the only way I knew how to describe the hunger in his eyes. He jerked back quickly, pressing his lips together. I put my arm around him and leaned into him, laughing as he was seemingly blinded by the camera flash. The fourth picture was of him innocently kissing me on the cheek, but the thoughts that were running through my head as he pressed his lips against my skin weren't very innocent.

He helped me out of the photo booth and we looked at the photos of ourselves with amusement.

"We are such dorks." He muttered, but the slight tilt of his lips told me he was joking. After he drove me home, I insisted that we both take two of the four pictures.

"I want the one where I'm biting you." He said, pulling scissors off my desk.

"Alright. Then I want the one where you're kissing me." I said, looking over his shoulder at the pictures in his hand.

"Mmm, why is that?" He whispered seductively, turning around to face me. I'd been looking over his shoulder, so I could feel our clothes brushing against each other. I couldn't speak. I couldn't move. He leaned forward towards my face and I swear by heart stopped beating. He pressed his lips against my cheek, kissing down my face, my jaw line, and down my neck, no stopping till he reached my collarbone. It all felt so teasing, the way he kissed my skin so softly yet so seductively. My heart was beating so loud I was sure he could hear it. Then, as he made his back down my neck, I felt his teeth graze my skin.

**Damon**

It took more willpower than I thought I possessed not to sink my fangs into her neck right then and there. I had my arms around her waist, and I had my fangs resting on her skin, but not breaking it. I wanted so badly just to push my mouth down and feel her warm, sweet blood trickling into my mouth and then sliding down my throat. But much to my shock, I managed to keep kissing back up her neck. _Make This Go On Forever…_ The song name came to mind as I realized that's exactly what I wanted. I wanted this feeling, this wanting, to go on forever. She slid her hands under my jacket and my shirt, sinking her nails into by bare back. I growled deeply, a purely animal sound that made her tremble in my arms. But not with fear. No, I could have felt the ecstasy radiating off of her had I not even been a vampire. And there was something about the fact I hadn't even kissed her mouth yet that fueled the passionate way my mouth trailed soft kisses down her skin. I wanted her. I wanted to devourer her… posses her… take her…

I was overwhelmed by the sensations running through me as her palms rested on my bare lower back and she held herself firmly against me. I knew I should have seen this coming. We'd been attracted to each other practically from day one. And every moment of closeness, of physical contact, had fueled the response I was having to her.

"Damon…" She whispered my name roughly, through ragged breathing. When I lifted my mouth from her skin, she leaned forward and began to reciprocate, pressing her lips against my neck. I sat down at the edge of bed, pulling her down with me. As passion overtook me, I pulled her down under me, and I studied her face. I could feel her heart hammering against my chest and I could feel her pulse racing against my fingers as I pinned her wrists above her head.

I leaned towards her, knowing we may lose control completely the minute our lips touched. I leaned forward, there was less than half an inch between her mouth and mine, she closed her eyes in anticipation…

"A.J.! You home?" A rough male voice called from the hallway. The passionate human girl beneath me went rigid. She pulled herself against me, fingers clenching around the back of my jacket in a way I'd come to find familiar. She now held on to me, needing me in an entirely different way than she had just moments ago. In an inhuman quick movement, we were off the bed and on our feet.

"I'll still be here." I whispered, disappearing to the other side of the bed. I sat on the floor and ducked my head so that I couldn't be seen.

"Uncle Darwin." I heard A.J. choke.

Suddenly I smell such strong adrenaline running through her uncle's veins that I knew he was going to do something awful. When I shot to my feet, he had the front of her shirt in his hands.

"Get off of my A.J., you sick son of a bitch." I spat, pulling A.J. behind me.

Then the man pulled out a stake, and I knew A.J. wouldn't be able to save me this time.

"_The last girl and the last reason to make this last for as long as I could. First kiss and the first time that I felt connected to anything. The weight of water and the way you taught me to look past everything I have ever learned. The final word and the final sentence you ever uttered to me was love."_

~Snow Patrol


	6. It's Coming Down, Down, Down

**A.J.**

No. Not him. Not my Damon. I had to keep from going into a fear induced state of shock when my uncle pulled out that stake.

I had lunged forward to throw myself in front of Damon when quick as a snake, my uncle struck me, knocking me unconscious.

"_A.J_._!_" Damon cried as I hit the ground. That was the last thing I heard.

**Damon**

My head jerked towards where A.J. had landed when she'd fallen backwards. I gasped as the wooden stake pushed threw my chest, narrowly avoiding my heart. I looked down and before I could blink, a syringe filled with vervain was plunged into my hip and I fell forward, landing next to A.J., who'd fallen on her back. Barely keeping my eyes open, I took her hand in mine before I fell unconscious.

**A.J.**

I woke up in a dark room, without anything restraining me. I heard someone's deep, booming voice far away, but whoever it was, they weren't in this room with me. I was alone in a windowless room. There was a tiny oil lamp in the corner that had a tiny flame. I stood up and stumbled to the door, which was predictably locked. And worst of all, I had no idea where Damon was.

"Morning, sweetheart." Said the rough male voice that terrified me.

"Go to hell." I spat between gritted teeth.

"Ah, you were always so feisty." He said, crouching in front of me. I snarled at him like an animal. He just through his head back and laughed at me.

"You and I have unfinished business." He said, grabbing my arm. And then, all of the memories that Damon had stirred up when he'd asked me if I was dressed flowed fully to the front of my mind. I was instantly lost in a flashback.

"Are you dressed for school?" My uncle had asked through my door the second day I'd been living with him. I had only moved in with him two months ago.

"Um, not yet. Give me about five more minutes. We have half an hour before we have to leave." I said, pulling clothes out of my dresser. I jumped when I heard the door open and my uncle came in.

"W-What do you want?" I asked, seeing the malicious gleam in his eye.

"You, A.J. darling." He said, walking forward. I stumbled back, reaching for my scissors, but he grabbed my wrists and pinned them behind my back. He used his free hand, the one that wasn't pinning my wrists, to grab the hem of my silky, knee length nightgown.

"No. Please." I choked, trying to struggle.

"Don't worry. This won't hurt a bit." He said, yanking at the hem. My heart hammering, I tried to kick and fight and scream. He'd pinned me to the wall and had begun to pull the gown over my head when I finally managed to free my wrists. I lunged forward with my fingers and clawed his face, snarling like an animal. I tore out of my room and out of the house, knowing that I must be quite a sight, running through downtown Mystic Falls in my knee length, silky, sleeveless nightgown. But what people thought of me was the least of my concerns as I ran and ran and didn't stop until I'd reached Sam's house. I'd known her all of my life. I knocked on her window until she pulled it open, looking as immaculately groomed as always.

"A.J. honey, what happened to you?" She asked, looking at my tear streaked face and my bloody fingernails.

"If my uncle shows up, _please_ tell him I'm not here. _Please_." I begged, collapsing onto her bed when my legs wouldn't hold me any longer.

"Of course. Can I do anything for you?" She asked, sitting next to me. I just shook my head and buried my face in her oversized mound of pillows.

"A.J., phone for you." Sam's mom said knocking on the door. The blood left my face and I began trembling violently.

"It's your uncle. He says you _really_ need to talk to him." She said. I knew what my Uncle Darwin was capable of now. I couldn't put the people I cared about at risk. He could hurt Sam, Andrew, and their families.

"Okay, may I have the phone please, Mrs. Tanner?" I asked politely. If Sam's mom thought something was amiss then she would immediately go to my uncle, and my uncle would do god only knows what to keep her quiet.

After she handed me the phone, I walked into the kitchen where I could be alone.

"Get home. Now. Or a lot of people are going to get hurt." He snarled to me. I'd known he would threaten me and the people I loved. And it didn't help that him and Sheriff Forbes were very close friends.

"I'm coming." I said, and hung up the phone.

And from that day on, I lived in fear.

A sharp slap to the face brought me back to reality as my uncle loomed over me.

"You better pay atten-"

"Where's Damon?" I asked, cutting him off. That _really_ pissed him off.

"Sorry, but it's over for your little boy toy." He said in a tone that told me it wouldn't do any good to correct the "boy toy" bit.

"Now, back to business." He said, clasping his hands in front of him.

"Again I say, go to hell." I said, bowing up like a cat.

"Don't you talk to me like that, you little brat." He said, grabbing me by the front of the shirt. I suddenly knew that if I didn't fight my way out, I would be raped and/or killed. I remembered him coming in but not locking the door back, but getting past my uncle was another matter entirely. But I did know one thing: I would save Damon or die trying.

**Damon**

I fought to stay awake as the vervain laced chains held me on the altar. The priest's words had long since become blurs, but one sentence managed to stand out.

"And with light, the greatest gift the Good Lord gave us, we will release his human soul from the body that has been tainted with the curse of evil." He said in a deep voice that made my already severely aching head feel like it was going to explode. _With light… release his human soul…_ fragments of the sentence echoed in my head as I realized what he intended to do.

I was going to be exposed.

I looked down at my hand, which was bare of the ring that had protected me for over a century. My skin smoked where the vervain chains held me down. I was wearing only my black jeans and the chain that bound me around my waist burned horribly against my stomach. My ankles, my waist, my wrists and my neck all felt like they were on fire because of the vervain burning them. I managed to see well enough through the stain glassed window across from to tell it was about ten minutes till sunrise. And when I looked up, I could see an opening in the ceiling above me where the sun would come through. All of these people were gathered here, eagerly waiting to see me burning. And the fact that you couldn't use a cell phone while chained to an alter is seriously inconvenient. Because I would really would have loved to have been able to call Elena and Stefan and tell them goodbye. And I could barely even fathom the idea of what was going to happen to A.J. now. Who was going to protect her? My head was still filled with thoughts of A.J. when I realized I had less than a minute before the sun came up.

**A.J.**

Taking a deep breath, I curled my fingers over my thumb and struck. My fist hit my uncle's nose and blood spurted out. I made my escape then, running towards the door and throwing it open. I slammed it behind me and locked my uncle inside by locking the deadbolt. I was in a long hallway with large double doors that led to the room where the deep voice was coming from. I took off running down the hall and threw the doors open, only to find myself standing in an isle between several rows of pews. And there, down the aisle from me, was Damon. Burning. His skin was smoking everywhere and his screams were piercing. Then I screamed one word filled with more fear, agony, and pain than I thought could fill my throat at the top of my lungs, and it echoed throughout the church.

"_Damon!"_

"_I shot for the sky, I'm stuck on the ground. So why do I try, I know I'm gonna fall down. I thought I could fly, so why did I drown? Never know why it's coming down, down, down."_


	7. What's The Gravity of Love

**A.J.**

I tore down to aisle towards Damon, only to be grabbed and held back by the priest. I barely even heard his ramblings of "it is for his own good" and "he does not belong in the Lord's world" as I kicked and fought to reach Damon, who was burning rapidly.

"Murderer!" I screamed, reaching for what I'd strapped to my ankle when I'd escaped from the room. It was a gun my uncle had been carrying and I'd pulled it off his hip when I passed him. I had no intentions of killing anyone, but I had to do something to intimidate them.

"Let him go!" I yelled, aiming the gun at the priest, trying not to let my hands shake. His eyes widened at the sight of the gun and he began to unchain Damon.

"Give him his ring back." I ordered, seeing Damon's finger bare of the family ring that he usually wore. I didn't know why, but I figured that ring was important. The man fumbled in the sleeves of his long robe and pulled out the ring, which I slid on Damon's finger.

"All of you people get out of here!" I said, not moving the gun from where it was, which was aimed at the priest's head. They all rose and scurried from their seats, running for the door. The priest also ran towards the double doors. When they'd all left, I turned to Damon, who was burned and unconscious. His skin was as white as the snow white walls of the church. He wasn't moving. He looked dead. No. I wouldn't let him die. Hell no.

Not knowing what else to do, I did the thing that had seemingly saved his life the last time. I dug my fingernails into my neck until blood streamed from a rugged wound at the base of throat. I leaned over Damon and pressed my neck to his mouth. He was still for several agonizing moments until I felt him move slightly. I felt his mouth move against my neck and I gasped as he began to feed on my blood. He sucked hard and deep and I could almost feel him strengthening. He put his hand on the back of my neck and to hold me in place, not that I was going anywhere. My heart was pounding, and I knew that it was making my blood flow fast and hard. As the immortal animal in him took over, he pulled me on top of him as he sucked my blood. And the amazing thing is I wasn't even afraid. He wrapped his free arm around my waist and I wound my hands through his hair, clasping him to my neck. Bloodletting wasn't painful or weird, it was magical and it making my body respond to him in ways that it had never responded to anyone. And the hell of it was the setting. A vampire feeding on a human girl on a church altar. I guess it's a good thing I'm agnostic.

**Damon**

I clasped her to me, feeling her blood run warm and sweet down my throat. Even when I'd fantasized about it, nothing could compare to the actual reality of taking her blood as my own. As my body fully healed, I flipped her over to where her back was against the altar. Her hair was fanned out underneath her, and a small amount of blood ran down the side of her neck. When her already pale complexion started to pale further, I stopped feeding, which was harder than I thought it would be. I ran my tongue over the wound to heal it and felt A.J. shiver. The tension radiating between us was so thick I thought I would be able to see it in the air. When I looked up from her neck, I caught her gray eyes with my own crystal blue ones, holding her gaze. I lifted myself so that my hands were on either side of her, supporting my weight. Our faces were a mere inch apart, and I knew the fire in her eyes was reflected in mine. What happened next was inevitable.

I pressed my lips against hers with enough force that I thought her lips would be bruised tomorrow. She responded with the same force. She put her hands on my back, trying to pull me closer even when I was as close as I could be. I parted her lips with my tongue and slid it in her mouth, feeling her respond immediately. If I was being honest, I wanted to take her right then and there.

"No." A.J. gasped as if she'd been reading my mind.

"Why not?" I said against her lips.

"Because for one, I am a human and you are a vampire and you will outlive me by centuries. Two, I have a boyfriend." She said, obviously trying to regulate her breathing.

"Those are some seriously weak arguments." I laughed, brushing her hair from her face.

"No they are not. They are human arguments." She protested, moving under me. I took her moving against me as an encouragement and pressed my lips back to her, feeling my body starting to respond again. She braced her hands against my chest and tried to push me off.

"What now?" I asked, pinning her wrists above her head.

"Get off of me." She said, though the roughness in her voice said she wouldn't mind me staying right where I was.

"You are not fooling me, A.J. You want this. You want this, you want _me_, so bad that it scares you. You hate the way your body responds to mine, and it kills you that you want me to take you right here, right now." I whispered against her ear, my lips brushing against it as I spoke. She was silently seething at my ability to read her so accurately.

"Let. Me. Go." She said through her teeth, trying unsuccessfully to free her wrists from my grip. I freed her wrists and helped her off the altar, whispering one thing into her ear before I disappeared.

"I am _never_ letting you go, A.J."

**A.J.**

_2 hours later…_

I curled up in my bed, shaking violently. I'd had to wash blood off of my mouth because of Damon kissing me with it still on his mouth. It was no use trying to not think about what had happened at the church. _It's the gravity of love…_ my mind whispered a lyric of one of my favorite songs. I pulled out an old journal that I hadn't written in for over a year out of my nightstand and flipped to a clean page.

_So, here's what's happened to me in the last two days:_

_1) I went to the mall with Damon Salvatore and we had entirely too much fun taking pictures in an old fashioned photo booth. (A quick briefing on Damon: He's a really hot friend of mine with dark brown hair, blue eyes, and wears a leather jacket. He's also a vampire.)_

_2) After we got home, he started his usual flirting, but this time it sort of led to him kissing me, only he never actually kissed my mouth, just my neck, face, etc. We later got interrupted by my psycho uncle who knocked me out after pulling a stake on Damon._

_3) After being almost raped by my uncle, I found Damon burning on a church altar, dying rapidly. After I chased off his disgusting little audience, I had to give him my blood to keep him alive, which effected me in ways I prefer not to talk about. So then the inevitable happened: Damon kissed me. If I described the way my body had reacted to that in full, then there would be no more room left in this journal. So I'll just that there was __fireworks__ uncontrollable wildfire coursing through my veins and leave it at that. So after that little incident, I came to my senses and made him get off of me (Okay, so it was more like I ranted and raved at him till he got off me.) Then before he left, he said "I am _never_ letting you go, A.J." which seriously worries me. Now here I am, writing all of this down in a little book. Lovely!_

I slammed the book closed and called Sam, my tried and true safety net.

"Hello?" Came her familiar voice.

"Hey Sam. This is A.J. We need to talk." I said, leaning back against my pillows.

"Well, spill, then. You sound… Oh, hell! I know how you sound! You sound _aroused_." She said, carefully emphasizing the last word.

"Yeah, well, do you remember me telling you about Damon?"

"Of course. How could I forget sexy stalker dude?"

"Well, I have a major problem and his name is Damon Sexy Stalker Dude Salvatore." I said, biting my nail.

"Tell me _everything_." She said, and I could hear her flop down on her bed.

"Telling you everything would take a while, so let me cut straight to chase and say I'm between a rock and a hard place." I said, knowing she'd understand what I meant.

"When you say 'a rock and a hard place,' I take it you mean 'a faithful boyfriend and a sexy stalker dude that you're way too attracted to for your own good?'"

I breathed a sigh of relief. "I knew you'd understand!"

"_Try to think about it. It's the chance live your life and discover what it is, what's the gravity of love."_

~Enigma


	8. The Beast You've Made Of Me

**Damon**

I got out of the shower and shook out my hair, turning to the mirror. Much more of this contemplation and I'd start brooding. I grabbed a towel off one of the hooks and wrapped it around my waist, stepping out into my bedroom. I felt the warm water running from my hair down my back as I pulled my usual ensemble out of my dresser. I looked into the mirror above of the dresser and saw my blue eyes looking dark and haunted. My hair stood up in all directions from where I'd run my fingers through it and I looked uncharacteristically distant. _If you could only see the beast you've made of me…_ the lyric of a song I'd heard on the radio came to mind. Quite frankly, A.J. had already seen the beast she'd made of me the minute she'd forced her bleeding neck into my mouth. My mind raced with thoughts of what had happened as I dressed. Kissing A.J…. feeling her respond… being pushed away… flying home as a crow… not being able to take my mind from her as hot water ran down my back in the shower… and now here I was, _still_ hung up on that damn mortal girl. Shaking my head at myself, I laid down on my bed and stared at the ceiling, not caring that my hair was still soaking wet. There was a knock on the door and I turned my head towards it.

"Come in, Broody." I said, not hearing the sound of a heartbeat.

Stefan walked in and started brooding at me as always. He folded his arms and looked me over, cocking his head.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." I said, staring back up at the ceiling.

"Actually, brother, it probably wouldn't." He replied, a small smile curving his lips.

"Alright, I'll cave. What's with the sudden appearance?" I asked, turning towards him.

"Sudden appearance of what- me or the sense of humor?" He asked.

I scoffed. "Both."

"Well, me because you haven't been home hardly at all and when you have been you've acted like a ghost. And the sense of humor because I've been hanging around you for too long." He replied, leaning against the wall beside my bed.

"Alright, I have one more question. Why do you care?" I said, narrowing my eyes. He was being very un-broody-like.

"Because you are my brother, Damon." He said, sitting on the edge of the bed. That hadn't been what I was expecting. My brows drew together in confusion and I propped myself up on my elbows, studying him. I didn't want to hate my brother, and though I'd never admit it, I didn't want my brother to hate me. So for once in my life, I decided to actually talk to my brother. Not as the annoying thorn in my side, or the person's life I was trying to make miserable, but as my brother.

"You remember A.J.?" I asked, deciding to start from the beginning.

"The blond girl who showed up here awhile back? Yeah, I remember her. You flew out of here like a bat out of hell the minute I told you she'd come by looking for you." He said.

"This is about her." I said, figuring he would understand that the "this" I was talking about was me behaving so uncharacteristically. He nodded and seemed to think for a few moments before he spoke.

"You have feelings for human girl and you don't know how to cope with them." He said as if he was a mind reader.

"I'm going to buy you a crystal ball and start selling tickets. They would say 'See Stefan the Brooding Physic and His Devastatingly Better Looking Older Brother!' We'd make a fortune, man." I said, my signature cocky smile forming on my lips.

"Ah, that's more like it. I was wondering who you where and what you'd done with the evil psychopath that just loves giving me a hundred and one reasons to brood." He said, but the small smile on his lips said he was teasing me.

"Yep. I'm coming up with a fresh list as we speak." I said, smiling.

"Well, next time you decide to start acting like the semi-human, almost decent version of my brother, please notify me ahead of time so I can throw a party." He said with a laugh.

"Will do." I said as he stood up and walked out of my room. For the first time in a long time, it actually just felt like we were two bantering siblings, not the vampire brothers that hated each other. And I realized that no matter how rough things got and how much venom we spat at each other, we would always be brothers. And the fact that I was pretty sure I could talk to Stefan about A.J., mixed with thoughts of A.J. herself, gave me an odd sense of security as I fell asleep.

**A.J.**

"So, what do you want to know first?" I asked.

"I want full physical description." She said, and I could tell she was waiting with bated breath.

"Well, he has dark hair, piercing blue eyes, he's tall, he has gorgeous pale skin, and this cocky half smile that drives me crazy." I said, giving her a detailed analysis.

"Wow, he's even hotter than I thought from the sounds of it. Okay, is he a good kisser?"

"Sam! Why do you even assume that I've kissed him?" I asked, laughing.

"Because you sounded like you were going to have a panic attack when you called me! This guy is totally getting to you." She said, making me realize just how much he had gotten to me.

"I am completely infatuated with him." I sighed, wondering if I was totally crazy.

"Alright, so what are you going to do about your other boyfriend?"

"Damon is not my boyfriend!" I protested.

"Okay, fine. What are going to do about you _only_ boyfriend?" She asked, elaborating.

"I love Andrew. Damon is just a friend that I have a slight thing for." I said, folding my arms.

"What happened to 'completely infatuated?'"

"I still am! It's all so complicated, Sam." I said, burying my face in my pillow.

"Well, if you're determined to spend the rest of your life with Andrew but you're seriously attracted to Damon, then there is only one thing to do." She said, satisfaction in her voice.

"And what is that?" I asked worriedly, seeing as Sam's plans were normally insane.

"Get Damon out of your system!"

"What do you mean, 'get him out of my system?'"

"Treat him like a cold you want to get rid of: let him run his course!"

"You want me to cheat on Andrew?" I asked incredulously.

"You won't be cheating. You won both of your boyfriends fair and square."

I glared at my phone, but fighting laughter. Sam was wonderful at making my infatuation for a vampire seem like a typical boy problem.

"Thanks, Sam." I said.

"Does that mean you're taking my advice?" She said, and I could almost hear her cock an eyebrow.

"No! I was thanking you for talking to me. I was going crazy not talking to anyone."

"Anytime, A.J." She replied.

"Thanks. Well, I should probably go to bed." I said, crawling under the covers.

"Goodnight, you naughty girl." She teased.

"Goodnight, Sam." I said, closing my phone. I sat my phone on my nightstand and flipped off my light, laying down against the pillows. Even though I'd been talking to Sam just moments before, it was Damon's image behind my eyes as I fell asleep.

_"If you could only see, the best you've made of me. I held in but now it seems you've set it running free. The saints can't help me now, the ropes have been unbound. I hunt for you with bloodied feet across the hollow'ed ground."_

~Florence and the Machine


	9. A Little Hard Sometimes To Take

A.J.

I felt his hand running up my leg, fingers brushing my thigh. He rested his hand on my hip as lay on top of me. I was wearing a dress that I had once worn to a costume party at school. It was an old fashioned, black and red corset dress with a full skirt the flowed around my legs. Like all corsets, it was strapless, so shivers ran through me as he pressed his lips against my bare shoulder. My long hair was fanned out under me as we lay entwined on my bed, candles lighting the room with a soft golden glow. He pressed his lips to mine, making me shiver all over again. He trailed his tongue along my lower lip, tasting me. I sunk my nails into his bare back, feeling blood well up under my nails as he kissed me all so passionately. He softly pushed my long skirt up my leg and I felt the denim of his jeans brush my bare leg. I ran one of my hands down his chest, feeling his smooth skin against mine.

"You're beautiful." I whispered to him, running my fingers through his soft hair.

For a very long period of time, we lay entwined, kissing passionately. Once, as I softly bit down on his lower lip, he growled deeply. It was a sound of pure animal wanting, torn deep from his throat. I smiled at my ability to make him make that kind of noise. I sighed deeply as he pressed his lips to the base of my throat. When he looked up, his beautiful face was transformed. Damon. My vampire.

I exposed my throat, my hair falling away from it. I knew he could see the fine tracery of veins through my alabaster skin, making me irresistible. The whites of his eyes were blood red and his canine teeth were longer and sharper than those of a human. He softly licked his lips and sunk his teeth into my neck.

I woke with a start, my hand flying to my neck. There was no wound on either side of my neck, and there was no blood. It was just a dream. I was in my room, alone, in the dark, in my knee length blue silk nightgown. Not in my room, with Damon, in the candlelight, in a dress straight off the cover of a romance novel. My breathing was labored and I was shaking violently. I looked at the clock, and saw that it was a little after eleven p.m. I must have started dreaming as soon as I'd fallen asleep. I staggered to my feet, not daring to go back to sleep, lest I dream of Damon again. I walked over to my window and looked out into the night, absently wondering what Damon was doing right now. Turning from the window, I picked up my framed picture of my parents. Yes, they'd gone their separate ways, but they were the only parents I had. I had my mother's blue eyes and my father's pale blond hair. My father had green eyes and my mother had thick auburn hair. They looked so happy in the picture, so in love. I reached for my cell phone, thinking of how much of a night owl my mother is. I dialed a number I knew by heart and held it up to my ear, my heart hammering.

"Hello?" Came the voice of a woman I knew very well.

"Hey, mom. This is A.J."

**Damon**

I pulled a framed picture off of my bookshelf and looked down at it, a small smile curving my lips. I had mounted my two pictures of A.J. and I on a 5x7 piece of cardstock I'd found in the attic and mounted them to it, writing a date between the two pictures, which were on opposite sides of the paper from each other. I sat the frame on my nightstand and ran my fingers through my hair. My clock mounted on the wall informed me it was fifteen after three in the morning. I looked up at my bookcase, debating on pulling out one of my many books. I finally decided on Jack London's _Call of the Wild _and pulled it off the shelf. I sat down in my desk chair, propped my feet on the corner of the desk, and immersed myself in my favorite book.

But even as I tried to read, the words blurred in my mind. I couldn't shake the strange feeling that something was bothering A.J. I looked up at the clock and saw that thirty minutes had passed. I closed my book and sat it on the desk. I opened my window, stepped out, closed it behind me. Then, I turned into a crow and flew off into the night.

**A.J.**

"So, met any boys besides Andrew that interest you?" Asked my mother.

"Um, well, one…" I admitted, figuring this would be a lot like my conversation with Sam.

"Tell me all about him."

"Well, his name is _Damon!" _I yelped the last word, because he was suddenly sprawled out in bed beside me.

"Um, I'll have to call you back later." I said, glaring down at the blue eyed vampire who was batting his eyelashes innocently.

"No way! I haven't heard you say a boy's name like that since you were obsessed with the Backstreet Boys a few years ago!" She said.

"Um, yeah, sorry-" I started, but was cut off mid sentence when Damon took the phone from me.

"Hello, A.J.'s mom. This is Damon. Hello, goodbye, it was nice talking to you." He said and hung up the phone.

"Damon! You just hung up on my mother." I snapped, taking my phone from him. He just smiled up at me, and I found it was nearly impossible to stay mad at him. I actually found myself smiling back.

"Do _not_ do that again." I said, turning over and laying on my back.

"Or what? Will I face the awful wrath of the mighty mortal?" He asked challengingly.

"Yes, you will." I teased playfully.

"And what will you do to me?" He asked, his tone going from teasing to husky and seductive. Yes, he played a mean game, but I was raised to where when someone plays you, you play right back.

"I don't know, it depends on what you do to deserve punishment." I said, leaning close.

" What will you do to me if I do this?" He asked, closing the space between us and kissing me fiercely. I later decided that my body acted without my mind's permission when I kissed him back, matching him passion for passion, lust for lust. He put his hands on either side of my waist and pulled himself half on top of me. The raging physical attraction between us sparked to life as he deepened the kiss, trailing his tongue along my lower lip. Suddenly I was reminded vividly of my dream and I jerked back, almost hitting my nightstand. Damon looked at me, confused.

"You have to stop doing that!" I said, getting to my feet.

"Doing what? You almost fell off the bed all by yourself." He countered, folding his arms.

"Not what I meant! Stop all the flirting and…stuff." I said, out of breath and flustered.

"Damn you're worked up." He commented, walking over to me.

"Please just go home, Damon." I said, pushing my hair away from my face. There was no way I could tell him what was really wrong with me, the true reason I was scared and shaken.

"A.J., what's wrong?" He asked, turning me around and putting his hands on either side of my face.

"Nothing." I said, proud of how strong my voice sounded. He lifted one eyebrow and looked like he did not believe me at all.

"What is wrong? Tell me the truth." He said, fixing his gaze on me.

"Do not use the mind control crap on me!" I yelled, slapping him forcefully. His brow furrowed and he looked deeply confused. I almost felt bad for hitting him, but he _had_ tried to use mind control on me, after all.

"I wasn't compelling you." He said, shaking his head.

"Of course you weren't, Damon. Of course you weren't." I said sarcastically. I opened the window, pulling back the curtains.

"You can leave now." I said, folding my arms.

"A.J., I was _not_ compelling you." He insisted, looking hurt and frustrated.

"Get out, Damon." I said, trying not to cry. I knew how deeply it hurt it him that I was kicking him out, but I could never tell him the real reason. I could never tell anyone. And, ignoring the fact that I'd just yelled at him and probably hurt his feelings, he walked over and kissed my forehead gently.

"Goodnight, A.J." He whispered. And then he was gone.

**Damon**

I stepped into the boardinghouse, feeling confused. And as little as I cared to admit, I even felt an unfamiliar twinge of hurt.

"You okay?" Stefan asked, looking up from his book. He was sprawled out on the couch in front of the fireplace and reading something from the International Library of Broody.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Thanks." I said, slightly touched that he cared. It felt good to be mending my relationship with my brother.

"You don't seem fine, Damon." He said, sitting his book down.

"Na, really, I'm fine." I said, trying to brush it off. There was no way he would understand my feelings for A.J. But then again, he was the one who had been wearing the tortured human shirt for over a century.

"Well, if you need to talk, I'll be here." He replied, picking his book back up. I nodded and started up the stairs, deep in contemplation. I stopped halfway up and did something I never thought I'd do: I asked my brother for advice.

"How do you do it, Stefan? This whole…human thing?" I asked, turning around and going back downstairs. I walked over and sat down in the armchair and propped my feet on the coffee table, laughing when Stefan scowled at me.

"Because I know that before I was a vampire, I was a human. And I chose to hold on to being human, as hard as it was sometimes." He said, putting his book on the end table behind him. And for once, he didn't sound righteous or accusing, just trying to help.

"But what about me? I _didn't_ choose humanity, I chose darkness." I said, frustrated.

"Maybe you did back then, but now you can choose all over again. You don't have to choose darkness." He said, folding his arms over his chest.

"But I don't do the whole tortured soul thing very well. That's more your department." I protested, with a slight teasing smile.

"Then don't choose light or darkness. Choose love." He said, sounding like Dr Phil: Brooding Style. _It's a life worth living… _The lyric of a song that was both one of mine and Stefan's favorites came to my mind as we talked about life and the choices we make.

"Love sucks, doesn't it, little brother?" I laughed, leaning my head back against the back of the chair.

"Yes it does." He confirmed, with a slight smile of his own.

Then we both snorted and muttered, "literally" in perfect unison and then burst out laughing.

"_Baby, it's just you and me, we've got a thing they can't shake. And maybe it's a little hard, sometimes to take. But I'll tell you something, it's a life worth living. Just so you know, I wouldn't give it up no."_

~Rie Sinclair


	10. It's Not Too Late, It's Never Too Late

**A.J.**

I pulled on my coat and decided to go for a walk. I slid my feet in my slip-ons and walked outside, taking to the sidewalk. How was I supposed to tell Damon the horrible truth that I didn't even want to accept? I needed to tell him the truth because I cared about him and didn't want to hurt his feelings…

Oh hell.

_Cared about him?_ What was I thinking! He was a vampire that would outlive me by centuries! I took a deep breath and tried to steady my breathing. I looked up and saw that I'd walked to the cemetery. Why the cemetery? I walked into the cemetery and began walking between the tombstones, my head ducked down. My hair fell on either side of my face like a curtain as I looked around. And, oddly enough, I felt drawn in one particular direction. I began weaving between tombstones and found him. Damon. He was knelt down in front of a tombstone, his fingers trailing over the smooth, hard surface. He was looking up at the sky, which was darkening with the oncoming storm. His eyes sparkled, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Was Damon Salvatore actually on the verge of crying?

"You'd love me if I was human, if I wasn't a monster…" He whispered to himself, seemingly not knowing I was there. He seemed to be miles away. I watched him with strange fascination as he stared down at the tombstone, his eyes unfocused.

"You're not a monster." I said, not even realizing I'd spoken the words on my mind until he jerked and spun to face me. He stood up and absently ran a hand through his hair. He hadn't even known I was there.

"It is not smart to sneak up on a vampire." He said, folding his arms and trying to look his typical cocky self. Instead, his half smile looked sad and broken and his eyes were still blurry. I stepped forward and looked up at him, studying him. He looked so broken, so forlorn.

"Damon, what's wrong?" I asked, meeting his eyes.

"Nothing is wrong." He asked, turning away from me. I put my hands on his shoulders and turned him around. He didn't even look like Damon right now, just a shattered shell of him.

"Liar." I said simply, watching his gaze go unfocused again. I grabbed either side of his face to get his attention. He looked at me, his gaze focused again. I was suddenly reminded of me when I'd found out about… The thought trailed off as I refused to think about it.

"You should go home. It's about to start pouring rain." He said, ignoring my question.

"Okay, so it's going to rain. Yay." I said sarcastically, reminding myself of Damon.

"Go home. That's where I'm going." He said, turning away from me.

"Fine. I'm coming with you." I said, falling in step beside him.

"No you are not, A.J." He said, getting frustrated.

"Fine then, tell me what's wrong and I'll leave you alone." I said, grabbing his arm.

"I'm a damn vampire! That's what's wrong!" He yelled, his fangs extending. He sounded and looked seriously angry, but I saw through it. He was sad and broken and hurt.

"And I'm a blond! So what?" I demanded, grabbing both of his wrists. I looked deep into his blue eyes and saw his long eyelashes shining. He bit his lip and looked like he was trying to get a hold of himself. I saw that he was on the verge of breaking down and suddenly wanted nothing more than to take it away. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him to me, holding him tightly. I felt his arms wrap around my waist and the tension drain from his body. I felt my own eyes fill as we leaned against each other. Tears ran silently down my face as I thought about my own situation. But eventually I stopped thinking about that because it was just too damn depressing.

"Look at us, one kick ass vampire and his faithful sidekick falling to pieces." He tried to joke, but his voice was thick with emotion. I looked up at his face to see the his eyes still sparkling.

"Faithful sidekick? You better not go all sexist on me." I said, making him laugh. It was broken, but at least he was laughing.

"Would you like me to redeem myself by showing you my deep appreciation for women?" He said, winding his hand through my hair.

"No thank you, Mister Endless Innuendoes." I said, gently releasing him. I sighed reached for his hand and we laced our fingers together.

"So, who's…" I had been about to ask who's headstone he'd been looking at but cut myself off because I didn't want to ask anything too personal or that might get him shaken again.

"That's mine." He said, following my gaze to the old fashioned headstone. He sat down against a tall headstone that stood about four feet tall and pulled me down beside him. He lifted his arm and leaned back.

"Get over here." He said, looping his free arm around my waist. I slid over and leaned against his side, feeling the arm he'd lifted circle around my back. It felt oddly natural just to lie there, resting against him. It felt safe. I just wished I could tell him the truth.

**Damon**

"So, tell me something. Do you keep a journal?" I asked A.J.

"I write in one occasionally, but not all the time. Why?" She asked, looking up at me.

"Just wondering. So, will you record these times?" I asked, brushing her long hair out of her face. It was a habit I had developed.

"What times?" She asked, tilting her head.

"These times. Taking pictures in an old fashioned photo booth. Me hanging up on your mother. Sitting together in a cemetery talking about nothing and everything." I said, leaning my head back against the headstone.

"I haven't yet. But I will." She said, burying her face in the sensitive area between my neck and shoulder.

"You better." I said playfully.

"So, tell me more about yourself, A.J. What kind of crowd do you keep company with at school?" I asked, trying to picture what kind of people she would befriend.

"Well, you and a girl named Sam Tanner are my closest friends, and then there's my boyfriend Andrew, who I've been with for a year now." She said, and I felt an odd twinge of happiness at her calling me one of her closest friends.

"Tell me about Sam." I said.

"She's stunning. She could be a model. She's very kind, very caring. And she's the most loyal, loving person I have ever met."

"She sounds like you." I said, speaking my mind.

A.J. looked up at me and seemed touched. She smiled at me and squeezed me tightly, like I was her teddy bear. But really, how could you push away a girl as sweet and gentle as A.J.?

"Damon, will you promise me something?" She asked, meeting my eyes.

"Anything."

"Don't fall in love with me." She said, much to my confusion.

"Um…" My voice trailed off. _Too late_, my mind said as my brow furrowed and I found myself being Extra Broody.

"I would never do anything to hurt you." I said, hoping she would settle for that.

She just sighed in defeat and rested her head on my shoulder. _Too late_… the words rang out in my head as A.J. fell asleep. How could I have fallen in love with a human? Was I out of my mind? _Yes,_ I mentally answered myself. I sighed and looked down at the beautiful girl sleeping soundly in my arms. Two words rung out in my head as I watched her.

_Too late…_

"_Now and again we try to just stay alive. Maybe we'll turn it around cause' it's not too late, it's never too late."_

~Three Days Grace


	11. The Moment I Saw You Cry

**A.J.**

I woke up in my bed, feeling groggy and disoriented. Then, remembering I'd fallen asleep with Damon in the cemetery, I sat up, confused.

"You didn't think you could get rid of me that easy, did you?" I spun to see Damon sprawled out on his back beside me, his lip curled into the cocky smile that seemed permanently affixed to his face.

I scoffed. "I know better by now." I replied, getting to my feet.

"Admit it, I'm starting to grow on you." He said, lifting his eyebrows.

"Yeah, you're like a virus." I said, looking at my clock, which told me it was 7 a.m.

"A hot virus." He added, folding his arms behind his head. I just laughed and shook my head.

"Well, I am getting in a shower. Alone." I said, cutting him off as he opened his mouth to presumably keep me company in the shower.

"Killjoy." He said, smiling.

"Call it what you will, but if you get any bright ideas, you _will_ be in pain." I said, folding my arms.

"I'm a vampire. You couldn't hurt me." He said confidently.

"There is one part of every male's body that they do not want a stake taken to, but if you try anything, I will not hesitate." I said, though in all honesty I mentally cringed at the thought of hurting him.

"Point taken." He said, smirking.

**Damon**

A.J. came out of the bathroom dressed, hair dripping, about thirty minutes later.

"Didn't you think to dry your hair?" I asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"Not really." She said, running a brush through it.

"Well it has to get dry somehow." I said, a plan formulating in my mind.

"It will." She said, laying the brush down.

"The sun will dry it." I said, getting to my feet.

"It's overcast today." She pointed out.

"Not on the coast it's not." I argued, making her lift one eyebrow.

"Damon, I know you're not the brightest crayon in the pack, but in case you haven't noticed, we're not on the coast." She said mockingly.

"Not yet we aren't." I smiled, resting my hand on the door.

She folded her arms and lifted both eyebrows. "Okay, so let's say that I do let you take me down to the beach. Which I'm not, by the way. My hair would already be dry by the time we got there, boy wonder."

"Okay, fine. I have somewhere else I'll take you." I argued, not giving up.

"And you're not going to give up until I agree, are you?"

"Nope." I replied happily.

Her mock stern expression faded and she shook her head at me, laughing.

"Fine."

**A.J.**

Ten minutes later, we were cutting through the woods behind the boarding house. When I tried to ask Damon where we were going, he would just smile and shake his head at me.

"Here we are." He said, stopping under a tree.

And before me was one of the most beautiful places I'd ever seen.

Unbeknownst to me, nestled deep in the woods behind the home of the Salvatore brothers, was a lake full of clear blue water.

"It's… beautiful." I said, shaking my head in disbelief.

"I know." He said, and began unbuttoning his shirt.

"What are you doing?" I asked as he slid it from his shoulders and hung it over a tree branch.

"We're going swimming." He said, unsnapping the button on his jeans.

"No we're not! Not… like that." I said as he kicked his shoes off.

"C'mon, we'll still be partially dressed." He said, hanging his jeans beside his shirt and walking over to the edge of his water.

_Yes, you will be partially dressed in black boxers and nothing else. Lovely._ I thought to myself.

"I mean if you'd rather me take everything off-"

"No! F-fine, just give me a second." I cut him off as he teasingly reached for the waistband of his boxers. I pulled my tank top over my head, kicked off my shoes, and reached for the waistband of my jeans. They were new, so the button was stiff between my fingers. I fussed over it and didn't even realize Damon was right in front of me until he took the button between his fingers and easily undid it. I looked up and our eyes met and held. My heart rate picked up and I felt my body lean forward on it's own accord. He was leaning forward too when I finally snapped back to reality. I leaned back and unzipped my jeans, slid them off, and brushed past Damon. He walked up beside me and held out his hand.

"I'm good, thanks." I said, stepping off the ground and dropping myself into the water. He slid in beside me, his side brushing against mine briefly. I tried to calm my heart rate, but it just beat faster. Suddenly Damon disappeared from my view and I spun around, not seeing him. Then he came up from under the water and wrapped his arms around my waist from behind.

"The idea of water is that you're supposed to swim in it." He whispered very close to my ear, referring to the fact that I hadn't moved when I'd first gotten into the water. I'd been resting my hands against the shore behind me, trying to calm myself down.

I slid from his grip and swam forward, trying to erase the memory of his body touching mine from my mind. He swam beside me, his hair plastered against his head. And, when I wasn't distracted by the almost visible tension between us, we had a wonderful time.

Two hours later, we were on the shore next to each other, lying on our backs.

"Damon?"

"Hmm?" He asked, turning his head to meet my eyes.

"Have you ever had a secret that you couldn't tell anyone? Even the people you care about most?"

"I'm a vampire. Of course I have." He replied, brushing his wet hair out of his face.

"Was it hard? Keeping something huge from someone you truly cared about?" I asked.

"Vampires can turn off emotions like a switch. We don't have to feel anything." He said, looking up at the sky.

"But what if you couldn't turn off your feelings? What if you were stuck with them, every minute of every day?" I asked, feeling my eyes fill.

"A.J., what are you not telling me?" He asked, leaning over me, concern filling his clear blue eyes.

"That's why I was asking you what I was asking you. Because I can't tell you, Damon." I said, my voice breaking when I said his name.

"Yes you can. You can tell me anything." He insisted.

"No. Not this."

"I'll tell you something. When you came to me at the cemetery, I wasn't emotional because I was staring at my grave. I was emotional because I am a vampire and some things would be a hell of a lot easier if I was human." He said, meeting my eyes.

"What would be easier if you were human?" I asked, puzzled.

"This." He said, leaning forward and pressing his lips hard against mine. My resistance falling away, I wrapped my hand in his soft hair as he pulled himself on top of me. I leaned my head back as he kissed my neck and I ran my fingers through his hair and down his back. He pressed his lips against every exposed inch of skin on my body, and I arched myself into him willingly. Images of the entire time I'd known Damon flashed through my mind, but one stood out prominently. Him turning towards me, his eyes blurry. The simple display of emotion had been the final straw. I'd already cared about him, but that moment of seeing him so heartbroken had had finally done it.

That had been the moment I'd fallen in love with him. _The moment I saw you cry…_ The lyric of a song off of A Walk To Remember came into my mind as I came to the terrifying realization that I loved him.

It was sappy and cliché' and straight out of a chick flick, but I loved him. I loved him right down to that damn cocky smile. As his lips finally reached mine again, I wondered how I had fallen in love with two people. Andrew, who was sweet and caring and my eternal safety net. And Damon, who was just… well, he was just Damon. Passionate, dangerous, cocky, protective, edgy, vampire, drop dead gorgeous. That was Damon.

He took his lips from mine and looked me dead in the eyes. I could see in his crystalline blue eyes what he was offering. I could see the passion, the wanting. He wanted me right then, right there.

"_You were all by yourself, staring up at a dark grey sky. I was changed. In places no one will find, all your feelings so deep inside. Was there that I realized, that forever was in your eyes. The moment I saw you cry."_

~Mandy Moore


	12. A Broken Heart That's Still Beating

**A.J.**

Damon met my eyes, the question in them clear. One forceful kiss and he would take me right then. But I couldn't. I just couldn't betray Andrew that way, and I couldn't because of the secret I was keeping from Damon. The secret I couldn't tell him or anyone else.

"I'm sorry, Damon. Will you please just take me home?" I asked, feeling myself getting all choked up. I just wished so badly I could tell him the painful truth, but I couldn't. He must have heard the desperation and sadness in my tone, because he didn't press me. He got to his feet and held out his hand to me, and I curled my fingers around it and stood up.

Then a wave of dizziness hit me and everything went black.

**Damon**

My eyes widened as A.J. fell forward into my arms. She was unconscious and pale, and felt unnaturally cool to the touch. I pressed my index finger to the side of her neck, over her carotid artery and felt her pulse beating there. It seemed to be a little fast, but nothing too alarming. I grabbed my dress shirt and wrapped it around her, handling her gently. I sat her down briefly to pull on my jeans, but with vampire speed I had her back in my arms in a second. I slid through the woods with my unnatural speed and laid her gently in the back of my car, laying her across the backseat. I closed the door and got up front, starting the car. I was worried sick the entire ride to her house, and I tapped my fingers anxiously against the steering wheel when she didn't wake up. I carried her to her room and laid her on the bed, pushing her hair out of her face. Brushing her hair from her face was a random little habit I had picked up. Considering briefly, I decided the best means of waking her up was my own. I slid onto the bed behind her and pulled her up to where her back was resting against my chest. I stretched my legs out and situated her between them. Then I sunk my fangs into my wrist and pressed it to her mouth. She waked up after several worrying seconds of stillness. She sucked hard and deep, curling her fingers around my wrist. I gritted my teeth to keep from moaning aloud. It was strange how her taking my blood effected me. I wrapped my free arm around her waist, clasping her to me. I could see A.J. strengthening as she took my blood. I fumbled for a word to describe the fiery sensations running through my entire body. The experience was… I again searched for a word. And as bad of shape as A.J. had been in just moments ago, I knew that the word shouldn't even occur to me, but I finally decided that as direct and blunt as it sounded, the experience was…sexual. It sounded awful when just minutes ago she had been unconscious, but it was the only way I could describe it. And I knew she was feeling it too. The sensations, the wanting. But as I watched her hold on to my wrist, I knew that like when I was the one taking her blood, the sensations were much stronger for me. She sucked my wrist one last time, harder and deeper than before, and I growled, sounding more animal than human. I felt my fangs elongate and touch my bottom lip, and I clenched my jaw as A.J. let go of my wrist. She leaned back against my chest, out of breath. She was trembling, but I'm pretty sure that's just the after effects of the bloodletting. Then she turned and wrapped her arms around my waist, burying her face in my shoulder. I had expected her to either yell at me for giving her my blood or start asking about the effects of her ingesting my blood, but she seemed totally relaxed. And I was quite content to wrap my arms around her waist and just sit there. And not to mention I feel sure we both needed to calm down after what had just happened.

"Damon?" Her voice was hoarse and weak, despite the fact I'd just given her my blood. She looked up at me, still looking pale and fatigued.

"Yes?" I asked, my voice hoarse for reasons that had nothing to do with fatigue.

"I'm still…weak…you're blood." She was whispering almost incoherently.

"What about my blood?" I asked, meeting her eyes.

"I feel… funny." She said, leaning her head against my chest again.

Then it hit me what she was saying. She was still weak enough to need more of my blood. I tried to ignore the little tingle that the thought sent through me when I answered her.

"Wrist or neck?" I asked.

"Neck. I'm already right here at it." She said, readjusting herself slightly. I nodded and, feeling oddly liked the humans I had preyed on most of my life, I arched my neck. I was reaching up to cut my neck with my fingernail when I felt her very human teeth ruggedly pierce my flesh. I gasped, wrapping my arms around her waist. She sucked harder and deeper than before, and I closed my eyes, feeling intense ecstasy run through me. I had never had such a deep physical response to anyone in my life. Not even Katherine. Her palms were resting against my chest, and I knew if I had a heartbeat that it would be racing in time with hers. She slid her palms down my chest, my stomach, and let them rest on my hips. I ran my hands down her back, and her skin felt hot against the palms of my hands. My back was pressed against the headboard and her knees were one either side of waist, pinning me. When she released me, I let my head slump against the headboard. Fire still coursed through my veins and left me hungering for her. My neck healed the instant she'd let it go, but my body still throbbed in a way that had nothing to do with pain. We silently tried to get ourselves under control for several minutes.

"Damon?" A.J. said, turning to me. She'd been sitting on the edge of the bed while I leaned back against the headboard.

"Yes?" I said, my voice still raspy.

"I need you to do something for me." She said, standing up and pulling off my shirt and handing it to me.

"What?" I asked, pulling it on and situating myself beside her on the edge of the bed.

"I'm sorry, Damon. I know that it will hurt you as much if not more than it's hurting me, and it is killing me to have to do this, but I have to. You have to stay out of my life. For good." She said, looking like she was about to either start screaming or crying.

"What?" I asked, totally confused.

"You have to leave me alone." They were the hardest words that she had ever had to say, from the sound of her tone.

"Why?" I asked, giving her another one of my brilliant one word answers.

"You just do. Get out, Damon. I'm sorry." She said, biting her lip. I could tell she was on the verge of crying. It was then that I realized why she wanted me to leave her alone. She'd finally seen me for what I was. A vampire, a monster. I couldn't blame her for wanting me out of her life. So, trying to ignore the pain that had suddenly taken over me, I stood up and kissed A.J. tenderly on the lips. It was just a brief brushing of lips, but it was soft and deeply passionate.

"Goodbye, A.J."

And then I disappeared into the night.

**A.J.**I curled up on the bed and sobbed more violently than I had ever sobbed in my life. I had just broken the heart of the person in the world that I cared the most about. If only I could tell him that the only reason I had sent him away was so he wouldn't get hurt, if I only I had told him the truth from the start. The words "if only" swirled around in my head until I thought they would start dancing in front of my eyes. I fell asleep with my face tear stained and my heart broken into a million pieces.

**Damon**

I walked into the boardinghouse, feeling like my body was there and the rest of me was somewhere else. I closed the door behind me and then leaned against it, trying to make sense of what had just happened. I had known that she was human and how terrifying vampirism is, but I was still shocked and hurt. I walked over to the table behind the couch and poured myself my usual alcohol into a shot glass. I took the glass and sat down on the couch and stared into the fire, as if it would spell out some kind of answer.

After downing glass after glass, I finally stretched out on the couch and laid my head against the arm of the couch. I stared into the fire until I fell asleep.

**Stefan**

I walked downstairs at two a.m. to find my brother laying on the couch, asleep. He looked broken and lifeless. His head was resting on the arm of the couch and the rest of him was sprawled on the couch. An empty glass was on the table behind him, and I could tell he had been drinking. He looked pale and gaunt. And as dead as he looked, I could tell he was still alive. I walked over and took a good look at him, wondering what could have my brother so helplessly broken. Then, after some thought, I wondered if something had happened with A.J. I remember the way his eyes sparkled slightly when he spoke of her and the way she seems to make him happy. I knew if Damon was awake right now he would say my expression was Extra Broody. I reached out and gently patted his shoulder. Even though he was soundly asleep, I told him the words that I would have told him if he was awake.

"It's going to be okay, Damon."

"_I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing. With a broken heart, that's still beating. In the pain, there is healing. In your name, I find meaning. So I'm holding on. I'm holding on. I'm barely holding on to you."_

~Lifehouse


	13. Love Till You Hate,Strong Till You Break

**Damon**

I stood over her, watching her sleep. This was a strange, stalker like habit I had developed and one I couldn't seem to break. I wanted to slide in beside her and watch those gray eyes widen when she woke up and I was lying there next to her. But I knew better than to indulge the want. The girl sleeping soundly under me wanted nothing to do with me.

And, feeling the raw wound begin to bleed again, I left through the window, closed it behind me, and braced myself to disappear into the night.

"Damon." I spun around abruptly as I heard her say my name. With vampire hearing, I could easily hear her through the window. But when I looked in, she was just as soundly asleep as before. But the sound of her voice drew me back mouse draws a cat. But unlike a cat to a mouse, I had no intentions of hurting her. I opened the window and folded my arms on the sill, leaning in but not re-entering.

"I'm sorry." She whispered in her sleep.

And, groping desperately for the little switch that would turn off my humanity, I reached for the top of the window. "It's not worth it." I mumbled as I closed her window. Being human isn't worth it. It's just too painful.

**A.J.**

I opened my eyes and glared accusingly at my cell phone, which was playing Raveonette's "My Boyfriend's Back." I recognized the ring tone I had set for Andrew immediately and picked up my cell phone.

"Hello?" I mumbled sleepily.

"A.J.! Hey, girl." He said, sounding all too chipper at five a.m.

"Hey, Andy." I said, using his nickname.

"What's up? I haven't heard from you recently. Is something wrong? You okay?" He asked, worry filling his tone. Usually I found his over protectiveness sweet and endearing, but at five a.m. it was getting on my already shredded nerves.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry I haven't had as much time to talk to you as usual. But don't worry, I'm totally okay." I promised, though I was just the opposite.

"That's good to hear, real good to hear." He said in relief, and then I heard his mom calling him.

"I'm coming, momma!" He called back to her. And a little voice in my head that sounded suspiciously like Damon Salvatore scoffed and said "what a spineless momma's boy." I silenced the train of thought and turned my attention back to my boyfriend.

"Hey, I've got to go. That was my mom." He said.

"Bye. Love you." I said, meaning it and still trying to ignore the little voice nagging me in the back of my head.

"Love you too. Bye." He said and then hung up.

I closed my phone and sunk back into my pillows, wishing I could just have a normal life. But no, I had to go and meet a vampire, fall for a vampire, break a vampire's heart, and it didn't help much that I… I mentally trailed off, not wanting to dwell on the whole reason I'd broken Damon's heart to begin with.

I showed up at school and smiled at Andrew and Sam, who were waiting by my locker. I absently wondered if they could see the pain in my eyes, the strain in my smile. And, for the rest of the day, I just pretended that everything was okay.

**Damon**

I walked over to the stereo in the living room and began flipping through songs with my free hand. In my other hand was my faithful bottle of alcohol. I had decided to get totally hammered and just say to hell with life for a few hours. I was already halfway slammed, and I realized that I had not gotten good and drunk in way too long. My jacket had been slung onto the bed and my black shirt was open, making it easier to move around. I decided on Kevin Rudolf's "In The City," which was loud and a great song to get wasted to.

"Hey, give it all up for me! Hey, give it all up for me!" I sang along at the top of my lungs as I danced around the house.

"Damon, what in the _hell _are you doing?" Came a voice right behind me. I turned to see Stefan brooding at me harder than I'd ever seen him brood before.

"Getting hammered!" I yelled over my blaring music.

"I'm going to guess and say that it wouldn't do me any good to ask you to get hammered quietly?" He said, folding his arms.

"Nope!" I confirmed, turning up my near empty bottle.

"Well, Elena and I had a fight…" His voice trailed off and he stared down at his shoes.

"And?" I prompted.

"Well my brother, I suppose I'm going to get hammered with you." He said, grabbing a bottle off the table behind the couch. I cocked an eyebrow as he turned up the bottle. My face broke out into a grin and I finished off the last of the alcohol in my hand. Stefan and I both began singing along with "In The City" and having a blast.

**Elena**

I pushed open the boardinghouse door that was unlocked as usual and walked into the entryway.

"Stefan?" I called, hearing some loud rock song blare from the living room. I walked in to find the brothers with their shirts unbuttoned, alcohol bottles in their hand, and singing along with that awful rock song at the top of their lungs. They were dancing around and seemingly having a blast getting hammered together. Feeling my eyebrows draw together in a Stefan worthy brood, I turned on my heel and walked out. I was still shaking my head when I got in my car and drove off. And go figure we'd fought because he'd been being a killjoy.

**A.J.**

I pulled out my journal and began writing the minute I got home.

_So, a lot's changed since I wrote in this book last. I fell for Damon, broke his heart, and now I feel like there is this huge hole in me where he used to be. And I didn't used to sound like such a sappy, chick-flicky, drama queen. I don't know if I can handle it much longer. Last night, I dreamed about him. The dream was simple, but heartbreaking none the less. We were standing in front of each other in the cemetery in bright, vibrant sunlight. Though the pouring rain would have been more suitable. _

"_Damon." I said his name in the dream, begging him to look at me. His face was turned, eyes averted._

_Then he turned to me with eyes that were filled with more hurt and pain that I knew one person alone could feel. He wasn't crying, but then again, tears were too normal and predictable. Tears lacked the ability, the complexity, to express the pain reflected in his eyes._

"_Why?" He choked._

"_I'm sorry." I said, wrapping my arms around myself. _

"_It's not worth it." He replied._

_And then I woke up, lost and confused and alone._

I sat my pen on the nightstand along with my journal.

Andrew. Sam. Damon. They would all be hurt by the time it was all over. And I loved all three of them, though in totally different ways. I shiver passed through me as I tried to picture what they would do if they knew. Andrew's jaw would drop. Sam would burst out in tears. Damon…. I couldn't even think about his reaction. I tried too, but I couldn't.

It's just too painful.

_Lost till you're found, swim till you drown. Know that we all fall down. Love till you hate, strong till you break. Know that we all fall down."_

~ One Republic


	14. The Older I Get, Will I Get Over This?

A.J.

The sound of thunder woke me from a deep sleep. I had always hated storms. I shivered as lighting flashed outside. I was looking through my window and saw the white flash light up the sky. I turned to my clock and saw that it was four a.m. Suddenly a flashback engulfed me of just six months prior…

_The storm raged all around me and Matthew Noir, a man of about forty that I had known all my life. I could feel shock course through me as he told me what I never hoped I would have to hear._

"_So it's true, then." I said, turning my head, glad that the rain pelting my face hid the tears running it._

"_Yes. I'm so sorry…" His voice trailed off because in all honesty, there was just no words that would comfort me now. I hated the fact that he thought I had to be comforted at all. It wasn't his trying to comfort me that irritated me, it was the sheer fact I had to be comforted. It made me feel weak. I could never tell Andrew or Sam or even my parents what I had just learned. They would treat me different and I know it. _

"_Thank you for telling me all this." I said, trying to recover myself._

"_I'm sorry I had to." He replied, giving me a tight squeeze. And, politely declining his offer of driving me, I walked home in the pouring rain as the storm raged all around me. I braced myself for the inevitable. Because there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop it._

I blinked, trying to clear my head of the awful memory. Trembling, I crawled under my covers and turned my lamp back off. I listened to the sounds of the storm until I drifted off into unconsciousness. My last thought that was, crazy as it sounded, I wished Damon was there. He made me feel safe. And, just like every time I thought about him, my heart broke all over again.

**Damon**

I was sitting at my desk, hung over and reading "Call of the Wild" when I heard the thunderclap and the pouring rain. Great. The sound of thunder made my already pounding head feel like it was splitting open. After getting thoroughly and totally wasted with Stefan, I'd crashed and burned. I'd passed out at midnight and now was already back up at four a.m., unable to sleep. As I listened to the storm, I recalled a night long ago of similar weather…

"_My, what beautiful grounds you have here, Mister Salvatore." Katherine said as I walked her across the grounds that surrounded my family's home that she had not yet explored. I had only met Katherine a month ago, but she still teasingly calls me Mister Salvatore every now and then. Most of the time, though, she calls me Damon. As we walked, I plucked a white lily from it's stem and tucked it behind her ear as we walked. She smiled up at me, making my heart flutter erratically in my chest. She effected me like no one else could. I had only known her for a month, but I already knew I loved her._

"_So tell me something, Damon." She said, and shivers slid down my spine at the sound of her saying my name._

"_Anything." I replied as she came to a stop and came to stop in front of me._

"_Do you love me?"_

"_Yes, Katherine. With all of my heart." I replied, telling her the truth._

"_Then if I show you something I've never shown anyone else, do you think you could still love me?" She asked, glancing up at me from under her eyelashes. Her brown eyes were sparkling with fear of rejection._

"_There is nothing in this world that could make me stop loving you." I replied, acting on impulse and taking her in my arms. She wrapped her arms around my neck and gently pulled the collar of my shirt down, exposing my neck._

"_Are you positive about that?" She asked and then buried razor sharp fangs into my neck. I had seen her face briefly before she had lunged, and it had been shocking. The whites of her eyes had been blood red, her canine teeth had been elongated and sharpened, and her face was transformed in a way no human was capable of. She pulled back a moment later, my blood staining her mouth. Many emotions shot through me when I looked at her. Fear. Desire. Shock. Confusion. Love. Disbelief. _

_But the word that flowed from my mouth in response to her previous question was effortless and unhesitating._

"_Yes."_

I threw my book into the wall as the memories of my love for Katherine assaulted me. But those feelings no longer mattered. The vampire woman I had been so helplessly in loved with had betrayed me. I had only been a toy to her, a pawn in her endless game of cat and mouse. She had never loved me the way I loved her.

"Why did you do this to me, Katherine? What the _hell_ did I ever do you?" I yelled, kicking the desk. A vicious onslaught of memories continued to rip open the already raw wound of her betrayal. Seeing her for the first time. Falling in love with her. Finding out about what she is and her trusting me with her secret. Her promising to make me a vampire and let me stay at her side for all of eternity. Katherine getting taken from me. Fighting tooth and nail to get her back. Finding out that she was locked in a tomb under the church that I could later get her out of. Spending a century and a half waiting to free her. And the, to finish the story of my life, finding out every bit of it was a lie. I sat back down at the desk and ran my hands through my hair, making it stick up even worse than it already was.

"Katherine betrayed me. Elena wants my little brother. And A.J…." My muttering trailed off as I tried to sum up the little blond chick that had thrown my life into chaos. These women just would not cut me a break.

**A.J**

"Hey, baby. Let's go out tonight." Andrew said at lunch.

"Sure. Have anywhere in mind?" I said, still tired from not getting much sleep last night. It was still pouring rain outside and they expected for it to storm again tonight.

"Yep. There's a nightclub opening tonight a few towns over and your genius boyfriend got us some fake Ids." He said, smiling. I wasn't even going to ask how he'd gotten his hands on fake Ids.

"Great! Sounds like fun." I said, forcing a smile. Because honestly, I would much rather just stay home.

"Awesome. I'll pick you up at five thirty. That way we can grab a bite to eat and easily be there for the opening at eight o clock." He said, and I felt dread well up in me at the prospect of a road trip in the middle of a storm.

"Perfect." I smiled, determined not to hurt his feelings.

After school, I drove home to get ready. I went in the house and began going through my closet. Just as I was beginning to worry that I had nothing I could wear to a club, I saw a bag sitting on my bed. There was a note attached, which I pulled off and read.

_You can thank me later._

_Love, Sam_

I smiled and pulled out whatever outfit my best friend had either bought me or loaned me. My breath caught in my throat when I pulled the dress out of the bag. It was black, and would fall about mid-thigh. It was had thin, tiny black straps and fell in a deep scoop neck in the front. And it was totally backless, to top it all off. Knowing that I had nothing besides this to wear, I shed my clothes and slid on the black dress. It shimmered when I moved, and the black contrasted fiercely against my white skin. I pulled on black high heels, applied make-up, teased my hair, and already had my black clutch when Andrew knocked on the door. When I opened it, his eyebrows shot up as he took me in.

"You look… delicious."

Scarily enough, I was pretty sure Damon would say the same thing.

"_I was sitting there waiting in my room for you, you were waiting for me too. And it makes me wonder. The older I get, will I get over this?"_

~Skillet


	15. You Make Me Wanna Die

**A.J.**

My breath was taken away as Andrew walked me through the doors to the nightclub. Multicolored lights danced off our skin as we weaved our way through the crowd.

"Andrew, it's wonderful." I said, meaning every word of it.

He smiled, loving the sight of seeing me so happy. He walked me to a table to sit down at. We ordered virgin drinks and sipped them, talking and laughing. And, an hour later, he _still_ hadn't asked me to dance.

"Would you like to dance?" I finally asked, growing every so slightly impatient.

"Sorry, baby. I'm not much of a dancer." He replied, getting up to get more drinks.

I scanned the room absently, not searching for anything in particular. Yet they found what they weren't even looking for. He was standing at the bar, talking to the bartender. He didn't even need to turn around to face me, I already recognized him. The leather jacket, the broad shoulders, the dark hair. Damon turned to face me and met my eyes directly, making my breath catch in my throat. And, in a blur of motion, he was at my side.

"What are doing here sitting all by yourself?" He asked, taking a sip of the drink in his hand.

"Not dancing." I muttered under my breath.

"So I noticed." He said, making me jump. Damned vampire hearing.

"A.J., would you like to dance?" He asked, sitting his drink down and holding out his hand. I looked to the bar where I assumed Andrew still was, but I couldn't see if he was still there for all the people crowding the bar. I looked up into the vibrant blue eyes that were a pale, crystalline blue even under the multicolored lights. The reckless, slightly wild part of me that he always brought out flared.

"I would love to." I said, reaching out and curling my fingers around his hand. He pulled me to my feet, and then stopped dead. His eyes took me in rapidly, and the raw, animal desire in his eyes contrasted fiercely against the boyish appreciation I had seen in Andrew's.

"Beautiful. You look…beautiful." He said, his voice hoarse and rough. A shiver slid down my spine at the emotions clear in his voice. I decided that desire was definitely the most prominent of those emotions.

"Thank you." I said, the look in his eyes making me breathless. He led me to the center of the floor just as "Make Me Wanna Die" by The Pretty Reckless began playing. I was slightly nervous, seeing as I had never actually club danced before. He pulled me to him so that there was no room between our bodies. I rested my hands on his hips, and he did the same. The song was fast and upbeat, and I found my body easily swaying to it. A smile curved Damon's lips as I began to relax. Within seconds, our bodies were moving together in perfect unison. He spun me around so that my back was pressed against his chest and I leaned back against him, still moving fluidly against him. His arms wrapped around my waist, and I covered his hands with my own. I felt his hips moving in time with my own, and I could no longer figure out where I ended and he began. The song slowed slightly, and he turned me again so I was facing him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he wrapped his arms around my waist. I fully let myself relax against him as the song slowed to a point where he and I were mostly just swaying to the music. I listened to the lyrics and found myself oddly reminded of Damon and I.

_I would die for you, my love, my love._

My gaze locked with his and I knew he was listening to the words too.

_I would lie for you, my love, my love._

It was in that moment that I knew I couldn't push him away any longer. As much as I wanted to spare him the hurt of what was going to happen, I didn't want to face the inevitable without him. It sounded weak and pathetic, but I didn't want to face this without Damon. Time seemed to begin to pass in slow motion as we moved together. The song ended with the words _you make me wanna die_, which seemed unbelievably ironic. He wouldn't understand the irony of it, but I sure did.

Suddenly Damon was clutching the back of his head, and I looked over his shoulder to see Andrew standing there, fist balled and ready to strike Damon again. I knew that Damon was a vampire and it probably wouldn't even faze him, but that didn't stop me from being completely infuriated.

"What the hell, Andrew?" I demanded, stepping forward to stand beside Damon.

"I am sick and tired to death of walking up to find you with this sorry piece of-"

I cut him off my reaching forward and slapping the hell out of him. Doing something so violent is normally pretty out of character of me, but there was no way I was just going to stand around and let him call Damon names. Damon was standing there looking at me with a mix of concern, amusement, and pride. He obviously hadn't known I had it me. Andrew stared at me, wide-eyed.

"Don't you _ever_ try to call him that again." I snarled, shocked at the aggression in my voice.

"You're defending him? Since when are you such a little slu-" Damon decked Andrew before he could even finish saying the word "slut." The blow sent Andrew sprawling, and he clutched his bleeding nose.

"Let's get out of here." Damon said, putting his arm around me. I nodded and let him lead me out to his car. He opened the passenger side door for me and closed it when I got in, and then slid in the driver's side.

"I'm sorry about what happened back there." He said quietly, cranking the car.

"It's not your fault, Damon." I said, turning towards him as he pulled out of the parking lot.

"Thank you for decking him for me." I added, a smile curving my lips. He lifted an eyebrow, obviously not expecting a thank you.

"You're welcome." He laughed, taking my hand. I laced my fingers with his, and it felt oddly natural to do so. His gaze flicked to our joined hands, and I knew that he understood I was done pushing him away. Suddenly a wave of dizziness swept over me and I leaned back into the seat, closing my eyes.

"A.J.?" Damon's voice seemed to come from very far away. I felt my hand go limp in his, and I felt myself about to go unconscious again.

"A.J.!" Damon said, louder this time. I wanted to reassure him, but I fell unconscious before I could.

**Damon**

It felt like I couldn't get A.J. to the boardinghouse fast enough.

Her house was on the other side of town from mine, so I took her to the closest place I could find. Stefan and Elena were out on a date tonight, so the boardinghouse was empty when I carried her in and shot up the stairs at vampire speed. I laid her on my bed and gently removed her shoes, feeling worry spread through me. I was sunk my fangs into my wrist and put it to her mouth after pulling her into a sitting position. After deducing that she was too weak to swallow, I began messaging her throat to make the blood go down. She finally woke up after several mouthfuls of my blood. I pulled my wrist from her mouth when her eyes opened. But even now, she still looked weak.

"Why does this keep happening to you?" I asked. I didn't want to assault her questions, but I had to know. She had done this that day at the lake and now she'd done it again.

"I-I can't… tell you." She whispered hoarsely.

"Yes you can. You can tell me anything." I said, lacing our fingers together. She simply shook her head, a sad expression on her face.

"Tell me, A.J. Please." I said, surprised to find myself pleading. I also felt my voice crack slightly on the last word. She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around me, burying her face in my chest. I could feel her sobbing, and I wondered what could break her heart this badly.

And then, a heartbeat later, she answered the question that had silently went through my head. The words were choked out through her sobs, but I heard them all too well. The three words she choked into my chest would forever torment me.

"I'm dying, Damon."

"_Take me, I'm alive. Never was a girl with a wicked mind, but everything looks better when the sun goes down. I had everything, opportunities for eternity and I could belong to the night. Your eyes, your eyes, I can see in your eyes, your eyes. You make me wanna die."_

~The Pretty Reckless


	16. Say The Word And I Will Be Your Man

**A.J.**

The shock and hurt on Damon's face was almost enough to make me fall apart right then and there. But I forced myself to be strong, I had to explain it to him.

"I have leukemia. It's a cancer that can't be treated by chemotherapy or anything else for that matter." I told him, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear.

"How long have you had it?" He choked.

"A little over six months. I was told by My family doctor, Matthew Noir. I begged him not to tell me parents, and he didn't. I didn't want anyone to know. They would treat me differently." I said, meeting his eyes. He looked awful. Shattered and irreparable and heartbroken. He hadn't cried, but the pain in his eyes said so much more than tears ever could.

"When do they think you'll…" His voice trailed off, not being able to say the word "die."

"Their honestly not too sure, it depends on how much of a toll it takes on my immune system." I said, hating the vague answer as much as I'm sure Damon did.

"Why you? Would the hell did you ever do to anyone?" He snarled, clenching his jaw. I just shook my head, wishing I had an answer to his question. Then his eyes widened briefly, and he looked like he was coming to a sudden realization.

"This is why you wanted me to leave you alone. You didn't want me to know that you're… dying." He said, his voice thick with emotion on the last word.

"Yes." I said, feeling unshed tears wet my eyelashes.

"Well let me tell you something, A.J. I don't care if I have to compel every doctor that gets in my way, I do not care if I spend every second of every day trying to find a way to fix you, I am _not_ going _anywhere_." He said, shaking his head. He looked me dad in the eye as he spoke, and I saw the raw truth of his words. I never would have thought that when I died, I would have a vampire at my side. Yet here that vampire was, looking as determined as I had ever seen him. I studied his face as he knelt beside me, taking in every beautiful feature.

"You're beautiful." I said, speaking my mind. In return, that cocky smile I knew and loved curled his mouth, making me smile too.

"'Say the word, and I will be your man.'" He said, quoting The Fray.

I leaned forward and pressed my lips against his. It was supposed to be a gentle, sweet kiss, but that's like dropping a lit match on a trail of gasoline and then telling it not to catch on fire. I ran my fingers through his hair, winding my other arm around his waist. He leaned forward into me, and I felt my skin come in contact with his bare lower back as his shirt and jacket were tugged up slightly. I ran my fingers up his spine, feeling his smooth skin against my fingernails. I slid his jacket from his shoulders without even thinking about it, and then wrapped my arms around him. He pulled himself on top of me, bracing his hands on either side of my waist, keeping his weight off of me. A little voice in the back of my mind warned me where this was going, but at the moment, I didn't really care at all. And, just like I'm sure all girls have been at this point, I was scared. Not of Damon, never of him, just…nervous. Yes, nervous was definitely a better word. And I was pretty sure he could tell just how nervous I was. He kissed me fiercely, on my lips and down my neck, until the fear drained out of me. I reached up and began unbuttoning his shirt, surprised my fingers weren't shaking.

But now, even after getting past the nervousness, I still had no idea what I was doing. I slid his shirt off his shoulders, and he kissed me reassuringly. He met my eyes, and I knew that the hunger in his gaze was reflected in mine. That was all it took, that one simple glance. All hints of nervousness evaporated, and I immediately felt completely at ease. At that moment, nothing else had ever felt more right to me.

**Damon**

I gently ran my hands down her sides, over her hips, down the sides of her upper thigh, and then caught the hem of her dress between my fingers. It felt easy and natural as I pulled it over her head and threw it to the side. She lay under me, watching me intensely. The confidence in which she slid my belt free and tossed it to the floor assured me that there was not one bit of hesitation. The dim lighting of my room cast a faint shadow across her face, but I could clearly see the way her eyes sparkled.

The remainder of our clothes disappeared quickly, and I found myself entranced by the raw, animal wanting in her eyes. I lowered myself into her, and her eyes closed. She tilted her head back, exposing her neck. I wanted to hesitate, I wanted to reason out that taking her blood would probably only weaken her further, but the sight of her exposed neck and the sound of her racing pulse was just too much to resist. I leaned down and sunk my elongated canines into her neck, swallowing her blood as it flowed quickly into my mouth. I drank hard and deep, and when I lifted my head, I pulled her mouth to my neck. She pierced my neck with her blunt, human teeth with almost as much ease as a vampire would. Something about that thought made a light bulb flicker on, but my mind was too caught up in the present to pinpoint the train of thought.

**A.J.**

Hours later, I was laying against him, watching him sleep. His dark hair was in slight disarray, and I reached up and ran my fingers through it. Even as a vampire, his breathing was slow and even when he slept.

I couldn't believe I had ever been nervous of what I had just done. I was content and relaxed, for the first time in a long time.

"Love you." I whispered, knowing he wouldn't hear me.

"Love you, too." He whispered back, his cocky smile curling his lips. I jumped and then smacked his arm.

"I thought you were asleep!" I laughed, pushing my long hair from my face.

"I was… about twenty minutes ago." He replied, kissing me gently. I smiled and rested my head on his chest, laying one arm across his waist. I used my free hand to absently trace patterns on his chest, and I could feel that he was as relaxed as I was. My hair fanned out behind me, covering my back like a curtain. I looked up, studying his eyes closer than before. I singled out each individual detail one by one. The pale, cobalt blue that took up most of the iris, the tiny layer of darker blue that rested on the edges of the iris, the long black eyelashes the feathered out around his eyes… I realized I had never taken time to single out each tiny part of him and study it.

_You are so beautiful…_ I thought, not realizing I had spoken out loud until that cocky smile intensified.

"I don't believe my beauty can be accurately quantified, but I do have a perfect body, killer charms, and can reduce women to puddles in less than sixty seconds," he paused for a moment, tilting his head slightly, "yes, I'm beautiful." He concluded with a smile.

"You are so cocky!" I laughed, playfully pushing him with my elbow.

"And I have good reason to be." He countered, motioning to himself from head to toe for emphasis.

"The awful part is I can't disagree." I said, a smile of my own curving my mouth.

"You better not." He said, wrapping his arm around my waist.

"No intentions to." I replied, brushing his dark hair from his face.

I absently looked at a clock and saw that it was six a.m.

"You ready for breakfast?" He asked, following my gaze to the clock.

"Are you?" I asked, smiling.

"Ladies first." He said, getting to his feet. I followed him and slid off the bed and onto my feet. I looked down at my dress, which was not the most comfortable thing to eat breakfast in.

"Here." He said, and as if he'd been reading my mind, tossed me one of his black button downs.

"Thanks." I said, pulling on my underwear and then pulling his shirt on over them. I buttoned it and pulled the sleeves up a little, seeing as his arms were a good deal longer than mine.

"Um, what about your brother?" I asked, looking down at the shirt that came only about an inch or two below my hips.

"He's out trying to get the squirrels on the endangered species list. Elena may be the only one you'll run in to." He said, opening the bedroom door and stepping back to let me leave first. I could definitely see traces of the southern gentleman he'd been many years ago. We walked downstairs and he immediately led me to the kitchen and turned on the light.

"So, what do you want to eat?" He asked me.

"Any normal breakfast food is fine with me." I said, leaning against the counter.

"I hope you're hungry." He said, and started pulling stuff out of the pantry and refrigerator.

"Starved." I said, watching him move around the kitchen. I offered to help him several times, but he just told me to sit down and let him work. I laughed and hopped up onto the counter.

"Morning, Damon." Said a voice from the doorway. I turned to see a rather stunning girl with dark hair and dark eyes walking into the kitchen.

"Morning, Elena. This is A.J." He introduced us. I walked over and introduced myself, and she did the same. And, amusingly enough, we were in about the same clothing. And, and it also turned out that Elena and I got along great. Damon fixed us all three breakfast, and nearly choked on his food with laughter when Elena and I started comparing the brothers.

"Mine broods." She told me, taking a bite of bacon.

"Mine thinks he's god's gift to the universe." I said, meeting Damon's eyes.

"Mine goes to high school."

"Mine decked my ex-boyfriend."

"Mine eats Thumper, Bambi, and numerous other Disney characters."

This time both Damon and I both nearly choked on our food we were laughing so hard. We knew he hunted animals, but put like _that_ it was just downright hysterical.

"_Turn around and you're walkin' toward me, I'm breakin' down and you're breathing slowly. Say the word, and I will be your man, your man. Say when."_

~The Fray


	17. Look For The Girl With The Broken Smile

**Author's Note:**

**This is just pretty much a filler chapter, there is nothing particularly interesting in this one. Anyways, thanks to everyone who has reviewed and followed the story this far, you guys are great! Also, a big thank you to drodgers89 for her unflinching ability to give snarky commentary :-)**

**A.J.**

I showed up at school itching to talk to Sam. Elena was awesome and I loved hanging out with her, but Sam was my best friend and I _really_ needed to talk to her.

"Sam!" I called out to her when I saw her walking down the hall. We had about ten minutes before class, which gave me plenty of time to talk to her.

"Hey, A.J." She said, walking over to stand in front of me.

"We need to talk. Now." I said, grabbing her arm and guiding her over to my locker.

"No shit, Sherlock. Andrew has a broken nose and a black eye, and he told me that he broke up with you. But I want the real story." She said, folding her arms and cocking an eyebrow in a trademark Sam Tanner fashion.

"Well, you know how I told you he took me to that nightclub opening? Well, he did, and after he walked off to get drinks, I saw him. I saw Damon. He came over and asked me to dance, and since I couldn't find Andrew - who refused to dance with me, by the way - I agreed. We danced, Andrew shows up, almost calls me a slut and Damon decks him before he has the chance, and Damon says he should get me out of there, and because I really didn't feel like the wrath of psycho ex-boyfriend, I said that was fine. And much later, Damon and I… well, um, we…" My voice trailed off as I started chewing on my bottom lip.

"Well you _what_?" Sam asked, reaching out, grabbing my shoulders, and shaking me. The suspense was killing her. I looked away, gnawing on my lip.

"Kiss? Make out? Touchy feely? C'mon, spit it out!" She said, shaking me again. I half smiled and started walking to class, darting out of Sam's reach.

"We did a hell of a lot more than kiss." I called to her over my shoulder, and disappeared into class.

**Damon**

I was sitting on the couch reading when Stefan came in.

"Hey, Squirelly. Are you finally turning into a squirrel?" I asked, making him roll his eyes.

"Yep, there's the bushy tail." I said, making him turn and brood at me. He shook his head and sat down in the armchair across from me.

"What have you been up to, Damon?" He asked, and I put my book down and propped my feet on the table. He glared at me, and I just laughed at him. He hated me putting my feet on the furniture.

"Ah, not much. Had breakfast with A.J. and Elena this morning, then I got a shower, settled down in an armchair to read, and the world's first brooding squirrel came in." I explained with a smirk.

"Wait a minute… Elena _and_ A.J.?" He asked, going from broody to extra broody.

"Yes, Elena _and_ A.J." I said, mimicking his puzzled tone and adding a mocking edge.

"What was A.J. doing here?" He asked, with a slight knowing smile."Me, for several hours." I said bluntly.

"Well that's a direct way of putting it." He muttered.

"At least I'm honest." I replied, getting to my feet and pouring a drink. Stefan just shook his head and went upstairs, seemingly on a mission.

"What are you doing?" I called up to him, leaning against the banister.

"Elena, for several hours." He replied, and I heard him go into his room. You definitely couldn't deny the two of us are related.

**A.J.**

Unsurprisingly, Sam was waiting impatiently by my locker when I got out of class. She was tapping her foot and her arms were folded across her chest.

"'Hell of a lot more than kiss?' You leave me with _that_?" She demanded, throwing her hands in the air with frustration.

"What more is there to say?" I asked, batting my eyelashes innocently.

"Did you two," she lowered her voice and leaned close, "sleep together?"

"Um, no. There wasn't a lot of sleeping involved." I said, biting back my laughter when Sam's mouth fell open.

"Oh. My. _God_. You did the sexy stalker dude?" She shrieked, causing several people to turn and stare at her.

"Alert the media, why don't you. And his name is Damon, by the way." I said, getting books for my next class out of my locker.

"I don't care what the hell his name is! This is _huge. _We have to celebrate!" She said, a grin spreading across her face.

"Celebrate what? The fact I'm not a virgin anymore?" I asked in a quiet tone, out of everyone else's earshot.

"No, not the fact you lost your virginity. That fact you lost it to _him_. That man is _gorgeous_!" She said, her eyes lighting up with appreciation. I just shook my head and laughed. I would miss Sam when I was dead.

**Damon**

I was waiting for A.J. by my car when she walked out of school, and a smile spread across her face at the sight of me. She walked over and I immediately wrapped my arm around her waist and leaned her over my arm, pressing my lips to hers. Her response was immediate and positive. Her hands wound through my hair, clasping me to her. She freed one of her hands and wrapped her arm around my waist, closing her fingers around my jacket. I finally leaned her back up, not breaking the kiss. She kissed me fiercely and passionately. I think it took every inch of our willpower to break apart. Her breathing was sped up, and I felt sure my hair was tousled and that I looked rather distraught.

"Shame…that we're… in public." I managed to say, still slightly taken aback by just how fiercely she responded to me. I had always been attracted to her and it had always been mutual, but now we could do what we wanted without restraint.

"Yeah." She agreed, trying to smooth out her hair, which was just as tousled as mine if not worse. I opened the passenger side door for her and after she was in, I shot around to my side and got in.

"So, where to?" I asked her as I pulled out of the parking lot.

"We could go to that lake behind your house." She suggested, and my mind immediately responded to the idea of being alone, in the woods, with A.J.

"Sounds good." I said, with my cocky smile.

An hour later, we'd been in the lake for about forty five minutes and were kissing hard and fierce. Her hands rested on my bare shoulders, nails digging in when I pressed my lips harder against hers. Suddenly her grip on me was significantly looser, and when I glanced at her and saw weakness in her eyes I knew she was having a spell. I immediately wrapped both arms around her waist and took her to shore, laying her gently on the soft ground.

"I'm sorry." She said, as if it was her fault she had cancer.

"Don't you even apologize, you crazy girl." I said, kissing her forehead.

She just smiled weakly and pulled herself up onto me, burying her face in the area between my neck and shoulder. I'm not sure if she passed out or fell asleep.

**A.J.**

I woke up in a large, comfortable bed, surrounded by Damon's familiar scent. I knew it was his room I was in even before he gently kissed the back of my shoulder. I turned over to find him laying next to me on his side, giving me that cocky grin. I was convinced that it's permanently affixed o his face.

"How long was I out for?" I asked, worry forming a tight knot in my stomach.

"Only two hours." He said, handing something to me. I looked down to see a single dark red rose in his hand, completely ridden of thorns.

"It's beautiful, Damon." I said, taking it from him and stroking one of the petals with my finger.

"Well I'm not good at being sweet and sentimental, so don't get used to it."

I just laughed and curled up next to him, but also making sure the rose did not get crushed. He reached out and took it from my hand, tucking it behind my ear. It was completely surreal and peaceful as we lay there, listening to the rain that was beginning to beat against the windowpane. The gentle, loving expression in Damon's eyes said four words that I had heard on a song on the radio. _She will be loved. _And as strong as I tried so desperately to be, I was scared. Scared of losing these random little moments. Scared of losing love. Scared of losing Damon.

"_I don't mind standing everyday, out on your corner in the pouring rain. Look for the girl with the broken smile, ask her if she wants to stay awhile, and she will be loved. She will be loved."_

~Maroon Five


	18. I Can Feel You Behind My Eyes

**A.J.**

"So, um, can I ask you something?" I said as Damon walked me across the grounds of the boardinghouse. I had never realized that the grounds were so beautiful.

"Of course." He said with a half smile. He was in a particularly good mood, probably because I had actually been walking for forty five minutes and hadn't passed out yet.

"My… senior prom is coming up." I asked, suddenly feeling anxious. I hadn't even considered bringing this up to Damon until Sam had asked me go dress shopping with her tomorrow.

"And?" He prompted.

"Well, I was wondering, if you would…" I was rapidly losing my nerve. I could kiss a vampire. I could let a vampire bite me. I could love a vampire. I could even cope with cancer. But I couldn't ask a vampire to the dance? I was pathetic.

"If I would…?" He said, his eyebrows lifting.

"Come. With me… to my prom." I finally managed, biting my lip. To my surprise, Damon threw back his head and laughed.

"You were _nervous_ about asking me to take you to the prom? I hate to break it to you, but I had already intended on it." He said, grinning.

"Well in that case…" I laughed, looping my arm through his.

"Just let me know what color your dress is going to be." He said, looking almost excited.

"Something that will match a mask." I muttered.

"Mask?" He said, brow furrowing.

"The prom. It's a masquerade." I explained, trying to figure out where on earth I would find a mask. I would have to hunt down a costume shop somewhere.

"Can't wait." He said, leaning over and pressing his lips against mine.

The next day, Sam and I were at the same mall Damon and I had visited awhile back. I nearly choked on laughter when my eye caught the photo booth.

"What?" Sam asked, following my gaze.

"Damon and I came here that day I called you and told you I was with him. We took pictures in that photo booth right there." I explained as we kept walking to the dress store. We walked in and started sorting through dresses; long and short, conservative and revealing, black and white.

"What do you think of this one?" Sam asked, pulling out a sleek black dress that was strapless and had silver rhinestones adorning the bodice.

"Hot as hell." I said, trying to find a dress I liked.

"Awesome." She said, putting it over her arm. I, on the other hand, did not find a dress quite so easily. Then, just as I was getting exhausted, something caught my eye. All I saw was a flash of crystal, but I knew when I pulled it out that I would immediately fall in love with the dress. And I did.

**Damon**

I went up to Stefan's room when A.J. was out dress shopping and asked if he'd bought Elena's corsage yet. A.J. and Elena are the same age, so we would all four be at the same prom.

"No, not yet. I figured you and I could both go out and buy both of the corsages. Do you have A.J.'s dress color yet?" He said, putting his pen down. He had been writing in his journal, but he didn't seem to mind my interrupting.

"Yeah. She texted me and said 'black and blue.'" I said, my mind fantasizing about what kind of dress she would wear.

"Alright then. Let's go." He said, sliding his shoes on, grabbing his jacket, and following me out the door.

We found a place that sold corsages and began picking ours out. Stefan chose one that a red rose on it that had a dusting of black glitter on it.

"Perfect." I told him as he paid for the corsage. I looked at the ones they had to offer and was ready to give up and go somewhere else when one caught my eye. It had a black lily surrounded by pale blue Swarovski crystals. And it was absolutely perfect.

**A.J**

It was the night of the prom, and I was nervous as hell. All I knew was that I wanted this night to be perfect. I'd taken a shower, using a rose scented body oil on myself, and washing my hair in shampoo with the same scent. I was now wearing a robe and blow-drying my long, pale blond hair. I brushed and blow-dried until my hair was soft and completely even. Then I gathered it all up on the back of my head, holding it up with a black jeweled hairpiece my mother had bought me two years ago. I applied my makeup, which consisted of a smoky blue-grey eye-shadow and a pale gloss on my lips. I even applied some faint blush to my ivory skin. And by the time I pulled my dress on, I barely recognized myself. My only accessory besides my black clutch and hairpiece was the vervain necklace Damon had given me, which looked stunning with my dress. I heard Damon come in the house and I knew he would be waiting in the living room when I walked out of my room. I walked into the living room and he turned to look at me. His eyes reflected a desire that took my breath away. He was literally speechless. Damon Salvatore was speechless. He took me in from head to toe as I stood in front of him. My dress swept the floor as I walked forward to take his hand, which he'd held out for me. The skirt was made of pale blue silk that flowed out to my ankles, and the bodice was made of the same material. The dress was backless, and it had a halter neck. It had a wide slit that narrowed as it cut down to the navel, which was where it stopped. The whole bodice is trimmed in black Swarovski crystals that sparkled when I walked. Even the bottom of the skirt was dusted with them. The bodice fit me like a glove, while the skirt flowed around me.

Damon pulled out a beautiful corsage that must have cost a small fortune, and wrapped the band around my wrist.

"I wouldn't want anything interfering with that dress." He said as explanation for why he wasn't pinning it to my dress.

"It's beautiful." I said, looking down at the black lily surrounded by crystals.

"Yes it is." He said, his eyes taking my dress in all over again.

"I was talking about the corsage." I laughed as he walked me to the car. He himself looking incredible in a black suit with a crystal blue tie matching his eyes perfectly.

We walked into the prom with me on his arm, and I received several jealous stares. Sam saw me and waved, and I smiled and waved back. She was there with the quarterback of the football team, not that this was surprising. Sam was stunning enough to have any guy she wanted.

"Is that Sam?" Damon asked, following my gaze.

"The one and only." I replied, watching her flirt relentlessly with her date.

"May I have this dance?" He asked as Stateless's "Bloodstream" came on.

"Of course." I said, taking his hand. We danced with his arms around my waist and my hands on his shoulders, and I rested my head on his shoulder contently.

_I can feel you behind my eyes…_

I found myself absorbed in the lyrics of the song playing. Even Damon began either humming or singing (he was too quiet for me to be able to tell which) along with it under his breath.

_You've gotten into my bloodstream…_

I tilted my head up and he kissed my as fiercely as he always did. And, just like always, my body responded. But sadly, I had to break the kiss because we were in the middle of a school dance. He gently ran his hand down my spine, his fingernails gently brushing the bare skin. We stayed at the dance for two hours before we left, and he drove me back to the boardinghouse. I could see by the raw animal wanting in his eyes that he had one objective, and I was pretty sure it involved my dress being reduced to shreds. Once we were in his room and he kicked the door shut, he immediately kissed me long and hard.

There seemed to be a fierceness and determination in the way his mouth moved forcefully against mine that was even more passionate than ever. It was…overwhelming, to say the least. And, just as he knew it would, my body fell victim to it instantly. I'd taken my shoes off as I'd come into his room, so after he took my dress off in one clean, swift motion, there wasn't much left.

I pushed the suit jacket off his shoulders and unbuttoned his shirt just as easily. It was only a few moments before we were both completely undressed, and suddenly he was on top of me, pinning me to the bed. His eyes sparkled with wanting, and his parted lips revealing his extended fangs. There was both relief and fear in his eyes as the dim lighting threw shadows on his bare skin. What was the fear for? He'd long since accepted my illness. I stroked his side reassuringly, from his ribs to his hip. He leaned down and kissed me slowly and lingeringly, gently sliding his tongue through my parted lips. He moved his mouth against mine seductively, and my nails sunk into his lower back. Then, with a sharp jerk, he was in me. I cried out in both shock and desire. I bit my lip as I tried to keep my body from moving on it's own accord. Though, in the end, I failed at this. When he pulled himself from my mouth, he met my eyes.

"I can keep you alive, A.J." He whispered in a rough, husky voice that sent shivers down my spine.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, confused. Had this been the cause for his forcefulness and urgency that he seemed to have had since the dance?

"I'm talking about making sure nothing ever hurts you again." He said, brushing his lips against mine once before pulling away to look at me again. My mind, which I'm sure at any other time would have figured out what he was getting a by now, was not following. My body still hurt from his suddenness, and my mind was not fully capable of conversation.

"Damon, I still don't understand." I whispered, and he looked oddly patient. Like he wanted me to understand before he told me. He leaned down and grazed my neck with his fangs, so lightly that he didn't break the skin. An idea was forming in my mind, but it wasn't completely formed and I still didn't totally understand. The word was on the tip of my tongue, and I realized that there was a small part of me that hadn't wanted to admit I knew what he was talking about, but I had known ever since he'd said the words _I can keep you alive, A.J._. I met his eyes and I could tell he knew I had put it together. The one word that could save me.

Vampire.

"_Wake up, look me in the eyes again. I need to feel your hand upon my face. Words can be like knives, they can cut you open. And the silence surrounds you, and haunts you. I think I might've inhaled you. I can feel you behind my eyes. You've gotten into my bloodstream."_

~Stateless


	19. Pushing The Edge, I'm Feeling It Crack

**Damon**

After seeing recognition flicker across her face, I knew she'd figured it out. And now I was waiting for her to say something. She took a deep breath and then spoke.

"You want to turn me." She said, not as a question but merely stating the obvious.

"It's the only way to save you." I agreed, though I sensed her statement was rhetorical.

"Yes it is." She said, nodding. I watched her as she thought it through, and I was immensely pleased that she hadn't outright rejected the idea. Yet.

"How does the process work?" She asked, looking scared.

"It's easy. And painless. All you have to do is die with my blood in your system. Which, say if I killed you now, you would wake a vampire." I opened my mouth to finish explained the transition, but she cut me off.

"I haven't taken your blood in awhile, how would I wake up if your blood's not in my system?" She asked, confused.

"Oh, I spiked your drink at the dance so you could enjoy your prom without passing out." I said simply, remembering cutting my wrist and letting a little of my blood flow into the already red drink. She lifted an eyebrow at this but didn't comment further.

"Anyways, you will have to feed off of human blood to finish the transformation. After that, I will get you a necklace, ring, or bracelet with a lapis lazuli to protect you from sunlight. And then, it's just you and me. Forever." I said, brushing her hair out of her face out of familiar habit.

"Damon, you have to understand I have never even _considered_ vampirism. I have to think about this…" Her voice trailed off and she looked overwhelmed.

"Hey, it's okay. You don't have to decide right this instant." I assured her.

"I know." She said, lacing her fingers with mine. She looked confused and conflicted, but fear was not what I saw in her eyes. She was completely and totally unafraid.

"Damon, I want you to know something. I am not hesitant because I doubt you. I know that you would get me through the process and take care of me, and trust me I have no qualms with spending forever with you. I have just never considered being a vampire and I'm…nervous." She said.

"I know that you trust me. And it is completely understandable that you are afraid. I was, too." I said, suddenly remembering the night Stefan had forced me to turn.

"You were?" She asked, tilting her head.

I sighed and decided to tell her the whole story, if not a little condensed.

"Here's my human life in a nutshell. In 1864, when I was twenty three, I met a girl named Katherine Peirce. Like my brother, I fell in love with her. I later found out she was a vampire and didn't care. She promised to turn me. Just me, not Stefan. I took her blood frequently, and she told me I would be turned when the time was right. Well, the town figured out that there were vampires in their midst and took Katherine away. I got shot trying to rescue her, and so did my brother. We both woke up, we were both humans that had to take human blood to finish the transition. I was hurt and betrayed and blah, blah, blah that Katherine had given Stefan her blood when she'd promised she was turning only me. Stefan took human blood before I did, and he came back that night a full vampire. He had one very compelled human woman with him. He wanted me to be a vampire so I wouldn't die, which is what happens when you don't feed from a human after dying with vampire blood in your system. I didn't want to spend forever without Katherine. He bit the girl so she bled. The hunger was too much. I fed from that girl. And that is the end of my human life." I explained, trying to keep it short and to the point.

"I'm sorry about Katherine." A.J. finally said, her mind still seemingly processing my story.

"I'm not." I scoffed, and moved my mouth back to hers. For the next few hours, we just took pleasure in doing very human things.

**A.J.**

When I woke up, sunlight was coming through the window of the room, so I assumed it was late morning or early afternoon. My back was against Damon's chest, and I could tell he was asleep. I turned over to face him, and saw that he was dead to the world. His dark hair was tousled and his arm, even in sleep, was wound protectively around my waist. _What did I ever do to deserve you, Damon Salvatore?_ I thought to myself as images of last night flashed through my mind. Walking into the living room and finding Damon, who looked all too handsome in a black mask that covered half of his face. Arriving at the prom with him and watching girls glare in jealousy. Coming home and later finding out that he could save me. And, as I thought of these things, I wondered why on earth I was hesitating. I could live, I could not only live but I could be with Damon forever and nothing would ever hurt me again. Why was I hesitating? When I looked up Damon, who looked so young and innocent in his sleep, my fears drained out of me. I leaned forward and pressed my mouth against his, slow and lingeringly.

"Morning." He said, somewhat sleepily.

"Damon?" I said, knowing what I wanted to ask.

"Yes?" He asked, propping himself up on one arm.

"When can we do this?" I asked, sitting up.

"Right now is just fine with me." He said, pulling me down beside him and kissing me hard.

"That is not what I meant!" I laughed, though I was sorely tempted to put my question off for a little while.

"Then what do you mean?" He asked, half smiling.

"I'm ready." I told him, running my hand down the side of his face. Those blue eyes lit up with recognition as he realized what I meant. He didn't need to be told twice. He pulled himself up into a sitting position and pulled me against his chest to where my mouth was against his neck.

He reached up and made a two inch long cut with his fingernail in the side of his neck, and I pressed my mouth to the wound. He wrapped his arms around me and ran his hand down my back as I took his blood. He seemed content and almost relaxed as he put his free hand against the back of my head and held me against his neck.

I fed until he told me that there was plenty of his blood in my system. I pulled back and looked up at him.

"Now what?" I asked, feeling no hesitation. He reached over and pulled something out of his night table drawer and held it up for me to see. It was a pale gold chain, and at the end of it was a beautiful circular lapis lazuli.

"It's perfect." I said as he reached around and clasped it around my neck.

"Now…I have to kill you." He said, letting go of the necklace.

"How?" I asked, not finding fear in what he was telling me. After all, I was going to wake up.

"I can break your neck, but slowly draining you would be much more…pleasurable. You would pass out before it hurts and stay awake long enough to feel the…thrills." He said, his voice taking on a slightly seductive edge I was becoming familiar with.

"Drain me then." I said simply. I said it without fear or melodramatics. I watched as his fangs lengthened and sharpened, and then he leaned forward and pushed them into my neck.

My pulse quickened as I began the metamorphosis that would make me a vampire. I was excited and eager and simply _wanted_ it. I wanted it with every fiber of my being.

I wrapped my arms around his waist and fell backwards onto my back when he pushed forward. I wrapped my legs around his waist and closed my eyes as he began feeding from me. He had fed off of me before, but he had always stopped in fear of taking too much. Now he could feed without restraint. And he hadn't been lying about the thrills of a lethal vampire bite. I sighed deeply as I began to lose consciousness. It was not like the times I had fainted from having a spell, though. This was more like falling asleep.

**Damon**

I took one more long drink of her blood before I felt her heart stop. Her heart stopping should scare me, but it didn't when I knew she would wake up. I had drank enough for her to die of blood loss, but had left just enough so that my blood was still in her system when her heart stopped.

It was not ten minutes before she stirred in my arms. I was sprawled out, one arm wrapped around her, when her eyelashes fluttered.

"Hello, my soon-to-be vampire." I greeted her, covering her lips with mine.

"Hello, my maker." She laughed after I pulled away.

"Why am I so hungry?" She asked, propping herself up on her elbows.

"That's normal. C'mon, I'll fix you something to eat and then all you have to do is feed off of human blood." I told her, helping her to her feet.

"And then I will be a vampire." She said, smiling at the prospect. Gone was the hesitation that she had once had. She wanted this.

"And then you will be _my_ vampire." I said, and kissed her again.

"_I'm pushing the edge, I'm feeling it crack. And once I get out, there's no turning back. Watching the butterfly go towards the sun, I wonder what I will become. Metamorphosis, whatever this is. Whatever I'm going through."_

~Hilary Duff


	20. One Night To Remember

**Damon**

I cooked for A.J. and we sat down in the living room together, sitting in front of the fireplace on the couch. It was some pasta thing I'd learned to cook about a century ago. She seemed to love it, and she asked me where I'd learned to cook.

"Well, I learned how to cook different things over the centuries, but I learned this one a little over a hundred years ago. I ate it at a restaurant and liked it, so I compelled the waiter to tell me what was in it. And, tada, I learned to make it myself." I explained.

"Hell, who needs a cookbook when you can just compel people." She laughed.

"Exactly." I said.

I ended up cooking probably everything in the house for her and even then, she was still hungry.

"Is it time to go find a human?" She asked, after realizing she'd pretty much eaten everything in the house.

"So it would seem." I said, holding out my hand and helping her to her feet. She slipped her feet into her shoes, which I'd brought from her house along with a change of clothes.

"Let's go." She said, a glint in her eyes that was both nervous and excited.

**A.J.**

Damon and I walked side by side down the sidewalks of downtown Mystic Falls as he taught me about singling out a human.

"Make sure the human is alone, first and foremost. Also, make sure the human is thoroughly compelled to think it was an animal attack. I'll do the compelling until you're a full fledged vampire, but after you're fully turned and I'll teach you all about compulsion. Try your best not to kill, but if you do at first, I'll clean up the mess." He explained as we walked. Truthfully, I was terrified at the idea of killing someone, but I just nodded as he informed about life as a vampire.

"And make sure, even in sleep, you _never_ take off your lapis. It's the only thing that protects you in sunlight. And though it's a rare case, make sure the human you take hasn't ingested vervain. The only ones that ingest it are members of the founding families, so I'll make sure you never feed from a human that's taken vervain." He said, and began naming off a few of the founding families. Fells, Gilberts, he named off a few other names I quickly memorized. We walked until we were at the outskirts of Mystic Falls, and then he told me to hunt.

"Hunt?" I asked, slightly uncomfortable with talking about humans like animals.

"Yes, hunt. Don't worry, if it makes you feel better I won't let you drain the human. And I'll compel him, of course." He said, releasing my hand so I could track a human.

We were standing on the edge of some woods the surrounded a small house, so it was all too convenient when a man who looked to be in his mid twenties walked out of his back door, which I could see easily from where I stood.

"Is he from one of the founding families?" I asked softly, looking up at Damon.

"Nope. He's fair game." He said, and led me out of the woods. Before the young man could blink, Damon was in front of him and compelling him.

I heard him tell the man that he would be completely cooperative and submissive, and then he crooked his finger to me to tell me to come over. I walked over and looked at the man, who was standing there looking between Damon and I.

Damon had pierced the man's neck to get the blood flowing, so all I had to do was feed. Swallowing back a twinge of nervousness, I began to feed. I only needed a little human blood, but my body thirsted for much more than a little.

I felt Damon's arms wrap around my waist from behind and gently pull me off of the man.

"Thank you." I said, scared I would have lost control had I not had him here.

"You're welcome." He said, pressing his lips to mine briefly before turning to the man and compelling him to think he was attacked by an animal.

"Is it done?" I asked, referring to the transition.

"Yes, it's done." He said, relief and pride clear in his eyes.

**Damon**

We ran back to the boardinghouse at vampire speed, because A.J. wanted to see how fast she can go. Pretty fast, turns out.

"This is…amazing." She smiled as we sat down on the couch.

I laughed and stretched out, pulling her down next to me. She rested her head on my shoulder, watching the fire.

"Thank you… for saving me." She whispered, meeting my eyes.

"I wouldn't have let you die." I told her, pressing my mouth to hers. Still wired from hunting, she was eager to kiss me back.

"Incoming Broody." I told her, though she was already pulling away. Now that she had vampire hearing too, she could hear everything I did.

Stefan came downstairs, and by the time he came into the living room, A.J. and I were sitting up, waiting for him.

"Hey, Damon. Hey, A.J." He greeted us.

"Hi, Stefan." A.J. said.

"So, A.J. has something she would like to show you and Elena." I said, and turned to A.J.

She looked nervous, but like me, she knew they would have to know eventually. Stefan brooded at us, but called Elena. She showed up and walked in, having just come from her Aunt Jenna's.

"Elena, Stefan, I would like to show you something." She said, getting to her feet. I stood up beside her and put my hand on her shoulder.

She closed her eyes and purposely transformed her face, which was something I'd taught her to do. When she opened her eyes, her fangs were extended, the whites of her eyes had gone red, and her face was fully transformed.

Elena's eyes got wide and Stefan got Extra Broody.

"You _turned her_?" Stefan asked in disbelief.

"Yes, Stefan." I said, sighing in exasperation.

He'd opened his mouth to say something when Elena, ever the voice of reason, stepped forward.

"So, A.J., how are you liking, being a, um, vampire?" She asked, trying to conceal her surprise.

"It's like being human, except having the enhanced senses and not being quite so vulnerable." She said, shrugging.

"Well, I'm glad that you're happy." She said, still seeming confused.

Stefan just glared and brooded at me. I rolled my eyes and put my arm around A.J.'s shoulders.

"Get over it, Stef." I said and led A.J. up to my room.

She laughed and sprawled out on the bed after kicking her shoes off. Her face was back to normal, but she still moved with an inhuman ease and grace that marked her as a vampire. I kicked off my shoes and laid down beside her, and pressed my thumb against one of her canine teeth. She extended her fangs, and I gently rubbed one with my finger.

"Thanks for trusting me." I said, pulling my hand away.

"Thanks for keeping me alive." She said.

"Always." I replied.

"Forever." She corrected with a laugh.

"God, we sound like something out of a chick flick." I said, playfully rolling my eyes.

"I don't think most chick flicks have vampires in them." She said.

"Tell that to the idiots that invented Twilight." I scoffed.

"Well, you're much better looking than that little sparkling twit." She told me.

"No kidding."

"_On night of the hunter, one day I will get revenge. One night to remember, one day it will all just end."_

~3O Seconds to Mars


	21. Bleed Just To Know You're Alive

**Author's Note:**

**So I know I said that I would expand this, but after this chapter I just can't think of how to further the storyline. So I think this will end the fic, and I'll start focusing on my Delena story, Five Minutes. Thank all of you guys so much for your reviews and support!**

**Damon**

I walked in to the boardinghouse after dropping A.J. off at her house, only to find Extra Broody being, well, extra broody.

A.J. had wanted to get some of her stuff to bring to the boardinghouse for when she was over here, just like Elena had a drawer of her clothing and such in Stefan's room.

"Damon, we need to talk." Stefan said, folding his arms.

"Well, we have an excellent start, seeing as our lips are moving and words are coming out." I said, cocking an eyebrow.

"Don't get smart with me, Damon. This is serious."

"Serious? When I signed up for being a vampire, 'serious' was not in the job description." I replied sarcastically.

"You turned an innocent girl into a vampire. You doomed her to a life of-"

"Do not pulled the whole tortured soul thing with me." I cut him off in exasperation.

"This has nothing to do with me. This has to do with a healthy human girl having immortality forced on her."

"Healthy? Forced? Not hardly, my brother." I said, bristling at his assumptions. The aggressively protective streak A.J. brought out in me flared and widened when Stefan started making accusations.

"What are going to tell me, Damon? That she _wasn't_ healthy? That it _wasn't_ forced?" He said, and lifted his eyebrows as if to say "point proven."

"That is exactly what I am going to tell you. A.J. had terminal cancer, and she wants this." I snarled, closing my fingers around my brother's throat. Stefan looked totally disbelieving.

"Liar." He choked out.

That was what did it. That was what made my already fragile temper snap. I threw him into the wall with the force of the infuriated vampire I was. I felt my face transform as I heard him slam into the wall.

He lunged at me, but I grabbed his wrist, twisted it, and forced him to his knees. His face was transformed as I forced him down, but I was so furious that I didn't really care.

Quick as a snake, he lunged forward and buries his fangs in my lower arm. I cried out involuntarily as he ripped my flesh. Just as I was going to try to pry him off, he was pinned to the floor by a vampire even more viciously protective than me, from the looks of it.

**A.J.**

I grabbed Stefan's wrists and pinned them above his head as I held him to the floor, the weight of my body preventing him from moving.

"Look here, you little brooding pain in the ass," I started, trapping both of his wrists in one of my hands and curling the fingers of my free hand around his throat, "If there is one thing you should have figured out over the centuries, then it's not to mess with a vampire, let alone a vampire's vampire girlfriend." I snarled, slamming his head into the hardwood floor. My fangs were bared and my face was transformed completely.

"So if you know what's good for you, then do not ever touch my Damon again." I hissed, easily using the possessive term on Damon.

I think he tried to nod, but I was holding his throat too tight for him to speak or move.

"And trust me, if you do ever hurt him again, I will not hesitate to hurt you _very_ badly," my voice dropped to a dangerous whisper as I leaned close to his ear, "and you know why? Because I learned from the best." And then I released him and turned to Damon.

I looked at him, truly taking him in. Yes, I had most definitely learned from the best.

I walked over and stood at his side, and we watched Stefan shakily climb to his feet and disappear to his room.

"Sorry. I guess I should have warned you, I have a protective streak." I said, almost shocked at how easily I had threatened the much older vampire.

"You have nothing to be sorry for." He laughed.

"What's so funny?" I asked, turning to him.

"I just love getting my little brother get put in his place by a girl." He said, shaking his head and laughing softly.

"Well, I think he got the message."

**Damon**

I was coming downstairs the next morning when I ran right into Elena.

"Hey. I was about to come looking for you." She said, brushing her hair out of her face. She was still being decent to me, so I had to assume Stefan hadn't told her about what A.J. and I had done to him yet.

"What might I be able to do for you?" I asked, leaning against the banister.

"Look, I'm sorry about the way Stefan and I reacted about A.J.. So to clear things up, I think we should go on a double date."

"A _what_?" I asked, trying to drop my jaw. Double dates were just so…human.

"A double date." She said, looking matter of fact.

"Um…" My voice trailed off and I stuffed my hands in my pockets. I had a feeling this would be a disaster.

Elena saw my hesitation and pounced on it.

"Great. We'll all four meet at The Grill tonight at six." She said with a smile.

I pursed my lips and watched her leave, trying to figure out how I had just ended up getting talked into going on a double date with Broody and Mrs. Broody. I picked up my phone and called A.J.

"Hey. What's up?" Her voice answered.

"A double date. With Broody and the Broody Mistress."

"A _what_?" She said, and I was amused to find that her reaction was identical to mine.

"Yeah, well, once Elena makes up her mind, changing her mind is nearly impossible. Trust me, I know." I said, remembering the time I'd spent chasing after her.

"What do you mean 'I know'?" She said, her voice taking on an edge.

"A.J…. are you _jealous_?" I asked, my lips curling up in a half smile.

"No I am not jealous! I was just…asking." She said, and I did not believe her one little bit.

"Of course your not. Six o' clock. The Grill. I'll pick you up at fifteen til." I said and hung up.

A.J. and I pulled up at The Grill and walked in, looking for Stefan and Elena. My eyes sought them out and found them at a booth waving us over.

"Wow. You came. This should be marked as a national holiday: Damon Salvatore complies." Stefan said in a rare moment of sarcasm.

"Stefan has a sense of humor: alert the media." I replied, sliding into the other side of the booth with A.J.

"So, Elena, tell me more about yourself. I don't know much about you," A.J. said, to start the ball rolling.

"Well, I am seventeen, I have a brother named Jeremy, my parents died in a car accident, and I live with my Aunt Jenna." She said, wincing when she talked about the accident.

"I'm so sorry, Elena." A.J. said, looking at her with sympathy.

"Thank you."

I propped my head on my hand and sighed in boredom as the girls bonded over sad, pitiful tales. Stefan, I soon realized, was doing the exact same thing. A small smile curved my lips as I realized that we probably looked more like brothers than ever right now.

"Would you like to play pool?" I asked him, seeing as the girls were still immersed in telling each other all about their lives.

"Sure." He said, getting to his feet.

"Elena, Damon and I will be right back. We're just going to play some pool and give the two of you some, um…" His voice trailed off.

"Girl time." I supplied helpfully, and he shot me a grateful look.

Stefan got beat three times, and finally gave up on trying to beat me. I smirked at him triumphantly, and he shoved my shoulder playfully.

The double date went surprisingly well, and after the we got back, the four of us actually found we had a good bit in common. A.J. and Stefan both liked cars. We all four loved mine and Stefan's cooking. We'd all had difficult past relationships. A.J. and Stefan had both been taught to play something by their brother (I taught Stefan to play football, and A.J.'s-) Wait a minute. A.J. had a brother?

"You have a brother?" I asked, brow furrowing.

"Uh oh. Damon's brooding. This can't be good." Stefan muttered.

"Had a brother." She corrected, looking away.

"Had?" I said, confused. Why had she never mentioned this to me?

"He's dead." She said, clearly misinterpreting my questioning tone.

"Yeah, well, so am I. Is he a vamp?" I asked."No. He was human. And so were all of the other people on September eleventh, but they died too." She said, blinking away the tears filling her eyes.

"I am so sorry." I said, taken aback.

"He was four. My parents were both at work, I was at school, and the babysitter was also a secretary that worked there. She'd gotten to the house to baby-sit and realized she'd left her purse at the office. She called my mom and asked if it was okay, if she took Markus with her, if she went back to the office long enough to grab her purse and then come right back to the house. They were on the floor the plan hit. There was no help for my baby brother," she said, and had to stop for a moment to clear her throat and blink away tears again, "we lived in New York then, but we moved away when that happened. We'd only lived there three months, but after the bombing happened we were terrified." She said, and I could see the trauma in her eyes, the memories.

I was speechless. Which was fine, because there is just nothing you can say to that kind of story. "I'm sorry" doesn't really fit the bill.

And though the story was awful, once Stefan and Elena expressed their sympathies, the date when smoothly. We talked and laughed and started talking about where we'd gone and where we wanted to go.

"Remember when we went to Georgia?" Elena asked, laughing.

"Of _course_ I remember Georgia. How could I forget?" I replied, and started to laugh too.

"I got so hammered. I remember when we'd first showed up at the bar and you started making out with Bree. I felt _so_ awkward." She said.

Stefan looked at her with raised eyebrows, obviously not knowing she'd gotten hammered until now.

A.J. had one eyebrow cocked, and I just gave her my signature cocky smile.

"What exactly happened in Georgia?" A.J. asked, her fingers tapping on the table.

"Well, I got drunk, for one thing. Damon almost got killed. And then we came home. And I guess we bonded." She said, looking at me fondly. Apparently too fondly for A.J. to like.

"He is very easy to bond with. What's not to love?" She said, fingers lacing possessively with mine.

Elena laughed and nodded, and A.J. relaxed. I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze that told her she had nothing to worry about.

And that was the story of my life. Stefan and Elena. A.J. and I. We were a family, and the four of us had bonded in ways humans would never understand. A.J., Sam, and Elena became best friends, and Stefan and I also became closer than ever. And while I was still sarcastic, and cocky, and mocked Stefan to hell and back, I felt whole. Alive. Human. And it was all because A.J. North had saved my life.

_And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming, or the moment of truth in your lies. When everything feels like the movies, yeah you bleed just to know you're alive."_

~The Goo Goo Dolls


	22. I Don't Regret This Life I Chose For Me

**A.J.**

"You stole my happy, you made me cry. Took the lonely and took me for a ride. I wanna uh-uh-uh-uh-undo it," I sang along with Carrie Underwood's "Undo It."

"You had my heart now I want it back, I'm starting to see everything you lack. Boy you blew it, you put me threw it. I wanna uh-uh-uh-uh-undo it," Sam sang into her hairbrush.

She and I were at the boardinghouse, singing along with the radio into hairbrushes. I'm sure we looked like world class dorks, but I didn't really care. We were dancing around Damon's room, having a typical teenage girl's day in.

"So I've decided something," she said hours later as we sprawled out on my vampire boyfriend's bed.

"What's that?" I asked.

"There is totally something up with you and Damon," she said, her brow furrowing.

"What do you mean?" I asked her, cocking one eyebrow.

"The way you two act around each other. Like there's nothing in the world that could ever separate you," she said, pulling herself into a sitting position.

"We're dating. Of course we're going to appear inseparable," I said, swallowing nervously. Could Sam be suspecting?

"Hey girls," Damon said from the doorway.

"Hey Damon," I greeted him, sitting up.

"Greetings, sexy stalker dude," Sam chimed. The nickname she'd given Damon before he and I had started dating had stuck, but he didn't seem to mind.

"So what have you ladies been up to?" He asked, sprawling out between us.

"Not much," I said at the same time Sam said "Singing along with Carrie Underwood."

"Sounds like fun," he said, folding his arms behind his head.

"Would you like to try?" Sam asked sarcastically.

"Try what?" Elena asked as she walked by the open door.

"I have an idea," Damon said, eyes twinkling mischievously.

"Uh oh," chorused me, Sam, and Elena in unison.

**Damon**

Half an hour later, me, A.J., Sam, Elena, and Stefan were all singing along with Carrie Underwood's "Cowboy Casanova" and getting completely hammered. We were like one very strange, mismatched family, the five of us.

"Damon, we need to talk," A.J. whispered in my ear while the other three still sung along with the music.

"About what?" I asked, sitting on the edge of my bed.

"Sam. I think she's starting to suspect."

"That we're…" I lowered my voice and leaned close, "vampires?"

"I don't know, but she sure suspects something," she sighed, running her fingers through her hair.

"Well what are we going to do short of compelling her?" I asked, knowing A.J. would never allow me to compel her best friend.

"We could always tell her. She wouldn't tell anyone else if I asked her not to," she said.

"I guess we could," I agreed, slightly uncomfortable at the thought of yet another human in Mystic Falls knowing about vampires.

"I think I should tell her," A.J. nodded.

My lip curled up in my classic cocky smile as I imagined Sam's reaction. "Go for it."

**A.J.**

"Vampires? Bloodsuckers? That's stuff out of kid's books!" Sam shrieked when I finished explaining about the fact that Damon, Stefan and I were vampires.

"Does this look like a kid's story to you?" I asked, dead serious.

"No," she mumbled.

"It's not. This isn't a dream. I'm not joking. You're not so hammered that you're imagining this," I said, meeting her eyes.

"Oh my god," she whispered as reality set in.

"Yeah. That was pretty much my reaction too. I thought Damon was psychotic when he first told me," I laughed, glad to see her laugh too.

"So you said that he turned you and that it was consequential. Why did he turn you?" She asked.

"Well…" My voice trailed off as I considered telling her the real reason.

"C'mon, A.J., you can tell me anything," she insisted.

"When he turned me…I had cancer. Terminal cancer," I explained.

"Oh god, A.J.. You should have told me," she said, wrapping her arms around me.

"I knew that even if you didn't mean to, you would treat me differently," I said as she pulled back.

"So let me get this straight. Damon is a vampire. His brother is a vampire. And _you_ are a vampire," she said, shaking her head in shock.

"That about sums it up," I said, nodding.

Sam just shook her head and laughed softly.

"I know it's a lot to take in," I smiled, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear.

"No kidding," she mumbled as she got to her feet.

"So we're fine, right?" I asked just to make sure.

"Of course. I don't care how dead you are, you're still my best friend for life. Or eternity, rather."

"Good to know," I said, getting to my feet also.

About an hour later, after Sam had gone home and while Damon was in the shower, I went down the hall to the other upstairs bathroom with the vanity in it. I sat down in front of the large, cherry wood vanity and pulled a pair of scissors from one of it's drawers. My hair had always fallen in long, pesky waves, and it had been getting on my nerves lately. I combed every last tangle out of my hair and then began cutting.

There was a point in my life when I would've cringed at the thought of cutting off one centimeter of my wavy blond hair that everyone oohs and ahs over. I was never shallow or vain, but I used to obsess over my hair. And now that I was a vampire, I figured I needed a new look to match my new life. I used to be sweet and somewhat naïve, but I just wasn't that girl anymore. I was a predator. A vampire. And while it's probably wrong, I enjoy being a vampire. Damon's vampire.

When I was finally done, my waist length hair was hanging to the middle of my back and it was flat ironed straight as a stick. I cleaned up the mess and sat back down in front of the mirror to make sure it was an even cut.

"I like it."

I spun at the sound of Damon's voice and saw him leaning against the side of the doorway, with a black towel wrapped around his waist and his hair dripping wet. It was a view I could get used to.

"I'll keep this look if you keep yours," I said, my lip curling up as I looked him up and down.

"If you insist," he said and shot over to me at vampire speed and wrapped his arms around my waist from behind. He pulled me off the vanity stool and off my feet, pulling me out of the bathroom.

"What are you doing?" I laughed, turning in his arms to face him.

"It's been way too all work and no play lately," he said simply, kicking his door open.

I felt his mouth seductively cover mine at the same time my back hit the mattress. I tilted my head back as his mouth began moving down my neck, nipping gently.

"If you're going to do this every time I get a haircut then tomorrow I'm giving myself a pixie cut," I breathed as he ran his hands down my sides.

He simply smirked and slid my shirt over my head. I slid the towel from his waist and the rest of my clothing disappeared rapidly. I felt a familiar jolt of pure ecstasy as he came inside of me, and I felt my fingernails sink into his lower back. It was moments like this that made me know that I would never, ever regret this life I chose for myself.

"_So I'm going home, back to the place where I belong. And where your love has always been enough for me. I'm not running from, no I think you got me all wrong. I don't regret this life I chose for me."_

~Daughtry

**Author's Note**

**I know I said that this fic was over, but I just decided that I wasn't quite through with the story of Damon and A.J.. I will be extending this to 25 chapters, and then I will be writing a sequel. In the next chapter I will be introducing a new character, and also Sam will become a more prominent part of the story now. I apologize if any of the chapters in this fic have been too sexually graphic, because I do try to keep the smut to a minimum. I will warn you ahead of time that it may be a few days before this fic is updated again, because I also have two other Delena fics in progress. **

**Anyways, thank you so much to all of the readers that have stuck with me and my crazy ideas so far, and of course to drodgers89 for the constant help and support!**


	23. The Wait Is Over

**A.J.**

"Let it ring," Damon mumbled into my neck as my cell phone started ringing. It had woke us both up at four thirty in the morning. I was laying with my back against Damon's chest, and his arms were wrapped around my waist.

"I can't. It might be important," I said as he pressed his lips to the back of my shoulder.

"More important than _me_?" He asked playfully.

"Probably," I said sarcastically, pulling my phone off the nightstand.

"Hello?" I said as I answered the phone.

"Hey cousin," said an annoyingly perky voice that I knew all too well. I hadn't seen my cousin in years, but it's not like he was hard to recognize with that British accent of his.

"Hey Harper. What's up?" I asked, having not talked to my cousin since his parents brought him down to visit when he was fifteen. He would be twenty six now, if I was calculating right.

"Not much. Just thought I would call and let you know I'm coming to visit," he said.

"You're coming here all the way from London?" I asked, excited to see him again. He was only me second cousin, so we weren't closely related, but I still loved Harper. While we share some personality traits, physically we are polar opposites. Where I have blond hair and blue-grey eyes, he has dark brown hair and brown eyes. And where my voice is free of any foreign accent, he has a very prominent British lilt to his voice.

"Yep. I bet you look different, seeing as the last time I visited you were six," he said, and I thought I heard Lifehouse in the background. Apparently his music taste hadn't changed a bit.

"I bet I will. When are you going to be here?" I asked.

"In about three days," he replied.

"Great. Let me know when you get an exact time you'll be arriving and I'll come pick you up from the airport."

"That would be wonderful. So, we should catch up. Unless you have something better to be doing," he said.

"No, not really," I said, not wanting to hurt his feelings.

"Lovely. Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Yes."

"Are you sleeping with him?"

"Yes, she is," Damon said, taking the phone from me.

"Damon!" I scolded, smacking his arm.

"I am interrupting something, cousin?" Harper asked when Damon handed the phone back to me.

"No, you aren't. We were asleep when you called, and Damon is being obnoxious," I said.

"Damon, huh? That a name you don't hear often," he said.

"Yeah. His name is Damon Salvatore," I said to him.

"Salvatore? As in Stefan?" He asked, seeming less than pleased at the prospect.

"Um…yes," I said worriedly.

"Peachy. I found Stefan in my backyard a few years ago eatin' himself a rabbit. A poor, defenseless Thumper," he said much to my shock.

"You know about…" I trailed off.

"Vampires? Yes I do. I've been studying them for years," he said.

"Then I should probably tell you something-"

"Oh no. Don't say it. Let me guess: Damon eats bunnies too," he cut me off as I started to explain what I was.

"Hell no," I said, recalling the time I'd tried out animal blood just to see what it tasted like. And trust me, getting a mouth full of fur along with the blood is _not_ pleasant.

"So how is he related to Bunny Boy?"

"I think I'm going to like this guy," Damon muttered.

"He's Stefan's older brother," I explained.

"Ah. Well, that is my dad calling me, so I will have to let you go. Call me back tomorrow?"

"Sure, Harper," I said.

We said our goodbyes and I hung up the phone. I placed it back on the nightstand and turned to face Damon, who had one eyebrow lifted.

"I take it we're going to have company?" He asked.

"If you don't mind him staying at the boardinghouse…" I trailed off, not wanting to impose my family on Damon. He had invited me to move into the boardinghouse, but I didn't know if he wanted my very perky, very British cousin thrown into the mix.

"Hell, why not. I want to see how long Stefan can handle the accent," he said.

"Thank you, Damon," I said, leaning over and pressing my lips to his. I was suspecting a cocky remark, but his gaze softened as he pulled me on top of him. There were certain times when I would see a gentleness and vulnerability in his eyes opposed to his usual flippancy, and this was definitely one of those times.

"Anytime, angel."

The next day at school, I told Sam about my cousin.

"You have a cousin?" She asked as we ate lunch.

"Yeah. He lives in London."

"He's a Brit?" She asked, arching one eyebrow.

"Oh yes. From head to toe," I said, recalling his thick accent.

"Lovely," she mumbled, shaking her head. Any sort of foreign accent drives her crazy.

"I think you'll like Harper," I said.

"Maybe if he doesn't talk," she said.

I just shook my head and went back to my food. I picked my phone up as it began vibrating in my pocket, and glanced at the caller I.D. After seeing it was Harper, I told Sam I'd be right back and walked outside and answered the phone.

"Hey Harper," I said, leaning against the wall.

"Hello cousin. Just thought I would call and hello. How are things going there?" He asked.

"Good. I just told Sam you were coming."

"Ah. I haven't seen her in years."

"Well you should see her now. She looks like a supermodel," I said.

"I bet you both do. So whatcha doin' right now?" He asked me.

"Not much. I'm leaning against the side of the school talking to you and watching this very creepy bird sit on a branch and stare at me," I said as it fixed me with its black eyes.

"Did you just call the bird I'm controlling creepy?" Asked a sarcastic voice right at my ear. I jumped halfway out of my skin and spun to face Damon, who was smirking in amusement.

"What about creepy birds?" Harper asked in confusion.

"Sorry Harper. Damon's being an ass," I said, playfully glaring at him.

"Sounds like a regular thing with him."

"Trust me, it is," I agreed.

"So you're never going to guess this," he said, and I heard the sound of him leafing through a book with my vampire hearing.

"You're reading a book?"

"Nope. Well, sort of. It's a book on vampires. But that's not the important part. I met a vampire, and she's letting me ask her all sorts of questions about being one. She seems very kind," he said happily.

"How old is she?" I asked.

"Probably not much older than you are. She's very beautiful," he said, and I thought I heard a trace of admiration in his voice.

"What does she look like?" I asked, somewhat amused that my cousin seemed to have a crush on a vampire.

"Brunette. Big brown eyes."

"She sounds pretty," I said even though there were millions of people on the planet with brown hair and brown eyes.

"Even her name's beautiful," he said dreamily like a little boy in love with a celebrity.

"What is it?" I asked, pretty sure he'd think her name was beautiful if it anything from Hannah to Becky to Mary Elizabeth.

He said one word. One awful, terrible word that made me drop the phone.

"Katherine. Katherine Pierce."

"_The time is now. And now the wait is over."_

~Rihanna

**Author's Note:**

**So I know that the quote at the end is extremely short, but it was all I could find that suited the end of the chapter. Because the wait is **_**definitely**_** over: Katherine is back! I hadn't intended on updating again until I posted a new chapter in one of my Delena fics, but I got bored and decided to introduce a new character. Just because there are so many different characters in this fic, I will be posting a guide of sorts to my profile****J**

**As always, thank you for reading!**


	24. Those Nights Kept Me Right

**A.J.**

"Harper, you need to listen to me. Stay _away_ from her. She is dangerous as hell," I said after picking the phone back up.

"What? Katherine is dangerous?" he asked in confusion.

"Yes. She is. Please just trust me," I said, leaning back into Damon as I began to tremble.

"Okay. Weird, but okay," he said much to my intense relief.

"Thank you, Harper," I breathed as I felt the tension drain slightly from Damon.

"Sure, cousin. Should I not tell her when I'm leaving?"

"No. Don't tell her when you're leaving, and whatever you do, do not tell her where you're going," Damon said as soon as I put the phone on speakerphone.

"Alright. So may I ask why I should fear her?" he asked.

"She's a vampire whore," I spat, bristling. Damon had long since explained his and Katherine's past, and I hated the woman.

"A vampire _whore_? Oh. Never mind, I get it. She's an ex-girlfriend of Damon's. I would recognize that jealous tone anywhere."

"Okay so fine, she is. She…well, she turned him," I explained.

"Ah. That explains it," he said, and I could almost hear him nodding.

"Yeah. Just please, like I said, stay away from her. And also track down some vervain and keep some in your pockets, rub it on your skin, have someone extract the oils and then put the oils in everything you drink."

"Okay. I've heard of vervain, and I know someone who can get some for me. An old professor from my college, he was the one that introduced me to vampires in reality. He is one," he explained to me, and I heard him cranking his car in the background. Good. He was leaving right away.

"Wow. A vampire supplying a human with vervain. He must trust you a lot," I said.

"He and I are very good friends. You see, we have this understanding: I won't stake him if he won't eat me," he said simply.

I laughed. "Sounds like a plan. Well I hate to, but I'm going to have to let you go, Harper. I have school," I said.

"Alright, see you later. Thank you for telling about Katherine."

"No problem. Just-"

"Yeah, I know. Stay away from her. I've heard it a million times, cousin," he laughed.

"Good. As long as you're done with her, we'll be just fine. Bye, Harper."

"Bye, cousin," he said before hanging up.

Three days later, I was picking my cousin up from the airport. Damon and I had discussed Katherine, and we'd decided we wouldn't worry unless she turned up in Mystic Falls. I was waiting, and I felt my eyebrows fly up when he stepped off the plane. He didn't even look like the same person anymore. Though this wasn't surprising, given that I hadn't seen him in eleven years.

While he wasn't exactly gorgeous, he was good looking in an unorthodox kind of way, with a slender frame, dark brown hair, brown eyes, and a fair complexion like mine. He was wearing a black long sleeved tee shirt, faded blue jeans, black boots, and a black fedora.

He ran right to me and swept me up off the ground in an air-constricting hug. I was really glad I don't have to breathe.

"It is so good to see you," he said, giving me one more tight squeeze before sitting me down.

"It's good to see you, too. You look so different," I laughed, looking at his hair, which was cropped short under his hat.

"Same for you. But then again, last time we saw each other, you were six," he said in his strong British accent that was even more prominent than it was when I'd talked to him on the phone.

"So how long will you be able to stay?" I asked, hoping he was going to be able to stay awhile.

"I don't know. I'm graduated from college, so there's nothing in London particularly demanded my attention. I may stay awhile," he said much to my pleasure.

"That's great. Damon can't wait to meet you," I said as he climbed into the red Ferrari California Damon had bought me.

"I take it Damon bought you this?" he asked, gazing at my car in admiration.

"Yep. Normally, I let no one but Damon touch my car, but would you like to drive?" I asked, holding up the key.

A brilliant smile lit up his face as he climbed into the driver's side and started the car. Turns out, he _loves_ my car. I gave him directions to the boardinghouse, and he pulled up beside Damon's GTO.

"Nice house," he commented as we took his bags inside.

"Yeah, it's wonderful. It's belonged to the Salvatores for years," I said, smiling when Damon came down the stairs.

"I heard you had a Brit in tow," he said, flashing me his cocky smile.

"Damon, this is my cousin Harper. Harper, this is my boyfriend Damon," I introduced.

"Nice to meet you, Damon," Harper said as he shook his hand.

"Pleasure," Damon responded, helping us get the rest of the bags out of my car. It's a good thing Harper hadn't brought much, because there was very little room in my Ferrari.

I turned and looked over my shoulder when I heard a car approaching, and a few seconds later saw Sam's beloved white Corvette pull up on the other side of my car.

"Hey Sam," I greeted her, motioning for her to go ahead and come inside.

"Hi A.J.," she said as she walked in.

"Harper, this is my best friend Sam. Sam, this is my cousin Harper," I said, watching as Sam arched one eyebrow at my cousin's accent as he said hello. I gave her a warning glance that told her she better not make fun of him, and she politely said hello to him. I took one look at my cousin's slightly widened brown eyes and knew he'd immediately taken to Sam.

"I-It's a pleasure to meet you," he stammered clumsily.

"So Harper, would you like to pick a room?"

I spun to see Stefan walk in, startled slightly because in my distraction I hadn't sensed his presence.

"That would be great. It was nice to meet you, Sam," he added.

"Nice to meet you too," she said, though her posture said she couldn't get away from him fast enough. Few people make her uneasy, but I could tell she didn't like my cousin one little bit.

He nodded, smiled, and walked upstairs with me, Damon, and Stefan. After he picked a room and we helped him unpack, he asked if I had any plans for today.

"Nope. The only thing that was on my agenda was to pick you up from the airport. I didn't want to make any immediate plans in case you wanted to settle in first," I explained as I helped him put framed pictures on his dresser.

"Since I'm settled, would you like to have lunch?" he asked as he put the last picture up.

I cocked one eyebrow, probably looking far too much like Damon.

"I did not mean lunch in the vampire sense," he laughed, shaking his head.

"I know, I was kidding," I said as we walked downstairs.

As we ate lunch, I found that we got along wonderfully. We were at Mystic Grill, and he had the appetite of a small army. And amusingly enough, he was tall and lean, without an ounce of fat on him.

"What's on your mind?" I asked as he nervously picked at his third plate of chicken strips and fries.

"I'm just…thinking," he mumbled, tearing a fry apart.

"About murdering a French fry?" I asked dryly, lifting one eyebrow.

"No, not about committing high treason on the crinkle cut fry," he said, matching me sarcasm for sarcasm. His prominent Britch accent somehow made his sarcasm more amusing.

"Then what?" I asked, stopping with the sarcasm.

He fiddled with his class ring for a moment before looking up, seeming young and uncertain.

"I'm scared. I'm scared because twenty six years later, I still don't know who I am," he said, shaking his head.

"What do you mean? You study vampires, you've graduated college, you're making a great life for yourself," I said, confused.

"So I've got some money and a degree. So what? I don't even know what I want to do with it all. I don't have a girlfriend, hell I don't even have a pet, I love studying vampires but I don't know if it's going anywhere…see what I mean?" he babbled, propping his head on his hand.

"You're only twenty-six, though. You have your entire life ahead of you," I said, taking his hand over the table and squeezing it reassuringly.

"I know I do, but what I am going to do with it? Studying vampires isn't exactly a career," he sighed.

"Make it one. Write books, take photographs of vampire inflicted wounds and sell them to labs to study," I shrugged, visualizing a whole list of things he could do.

"You're right, A.J.. I can do something with this," he nodded, seemingly seeing reason in my words.

"Good. I am glad you know that," I said, smiling at my cousin. He was strange, and a little bit out there, but he was my cousin and I loved him. I had a feeling we would become very close, very fast. I also knew that he needed someone right now, and I would be there whenever he needed me to be. Hell, I'd stay up with him all night just talking to him if he wanted. There was something about him that made me instantly protective over him, and I already dreaded him leaving. His accented voice brought me out of my trance, and I sighed internally at his words.

"So, tell me about this Damon…"

"_Stay up late and we talk all night in a dark room lit by the TV light. Through all the hard times in my life, those nights kept me right."_

~Skillet


	25. Sometimes There Are No Words

**A.J.**

"Damon, are you home?" I asked as I walked into the boardinghouse.

"Yep, I'm up here," he called from the bedroom.

"I am going to go read a book," Harper said. I wasn't surprised that he was still a bookworm.

"Have fun," I laughed, going upstairs and plopping down on the bed beside Damon.

"Did you enjoy your lunch with the Brit?" he asked sarcastically.

"Actually, I did. We discussed what he wanted to do with his life and committing high treason on French fries," I said simply, laughing when Damon lifted one eyebrow.

"I'm not going to ask you to elaborate on that last bit," he said, rolling over on his side to face me.

"You would've had to have been there," I told him.

"I feel sure. So, what do you want to do?" he asked me.

"Well…what is there to do?" I asked, feeling bored out of my mind already.

"We could go out to the lake," he suggested, and I perked up at the mention of the lake buried deep in the woods behind the boardinghouse.

"Sounds perfect," I said, getting off the bed.

"I'll race you."

"I'll win," I said, taking off running.

I'm pretty sure we tripped over each other and crashed into the water at about the same time.

"I do believe it's a tie," I said, surfacing.

"I agree," he nodded, surfacing next to me.

I swam contentedly beside him, and we did so for hours, not hindered by energy loss like humans would be.

"So, A.J., what do you say we go somewhere this weekend?" Damon asked me.

"Where?"

"I don't know. How does…" he trailed off briefly, "Italy sound?" he asked offhandedly, as if the idea had just popped into his head.

"That sounds amazing!" I said, swimming over and throwing my arms around him.

"I already have the tickets," he added smugly.

"You knew I would want to go to Italy, huh?" I teased, smiling.

"Absolutely," he grinned, kissing me.

"I'll go pack," I smiled.

_That weekend, arriving in Italy…_

I stared at my surroundings in awe as I held on to Damon's arm, walking through downtown Venice.

"Do you like it?" he asked me.

"I love it, it's perfect," I said, fixated by his eyes. This happened to me frequently. I would be walking, talking, and functioning normally, but one gaze that I held too long with Damon made me dizzy and incoherent. I thought absently of who I was before I met him, the sweet, shy A.J. North that saw the shot man under a streetlamp and couldn't let him go even after she saved him. Mine and Damon's relationship had been so hard, so complicated, yet here we were, in Italy, crazy in love.

"What's on your mind?" he asked softly.

"I just can't believe how different I am now, how different I am from the girl that held on to you while you died," I said, sighing softly. I was a completely different girl now. I was a predator, a vampire. And as disturbing as it is, I enjoy being a vampire.

"You're not as different as you think," he said, his lips curling up at one side.

"What do you mean?" I asked, puzzled.

"I mean that you are the same girl that…" his voice trailed off, and he bit down on his lip.

"The same girl that _what_?" I asked, turning him to face me.

He shook his head. "Never mind. It's not important," he said.

"Yes it is. What were you going to say?"

"I was going to say that you are the same girl that…I fell in love with. Sappy, I know. But it's true," he said hoarsely, as if the words were hard for him to say.

"I love you too," I said, leaning up to kiss him.

**Damon**

A.J. and I toured Venice all day, and finally got back to the five star hotel I had rented for us.

"Ostentatious much?" she asked.

"_Very_ much," I replied, getting out of the black Ferrari F50 I had rented us. I believed in traveling in style.

"It's beautiful," she said, taking in the ornate, expensive hotel.

"I rented this one for a reason," I told her, smiling.

"Because it made your credit card shriek in protest?" I asked, cocking one eyebrow.

"No. Because they are having a party tonight. A masquerade party," I added.

"Just like prom," she said, her face lighting up.

"_Exactly_ like prom," I said happily. That had been the night I had asked her about becoming a vampire, the night that had changed everything.

"Ironically enough, I brought my mask from prom. I don't know why, but I wanted to bring it," she laughed, seeming thrilled and excited about the party.

"Wonderful. I brought mine simply because I knew about the party before we even came. It's the original reason I decided on Italy," I told her as we checked in and went upstairs.

"When does the party start?" she asked.

"Seven p.m., in the ballroom. I already have directions to it, believe it or not it is part of the hotel."

"A hotel with a built in ballroom? No wonder this place is five star," she laughed, helping me unpack at vampire speed.

I stood in the main part of the bedroom getting dressed while A.J. took the bathroom, and smiled when I pulled my mask off of the dresser. I was already in my tux, which was completely black (right down to the dress shirt) except for my royal blue silk tie. It didn't look goth, but I undoubtedly looked like a vampire.

"Are you ready?" I asked through the door, sliding my shoes on.

"Just about," she responded, and I heard a hairdryer turn on. _Women and their primping, _I thought wryly, shaking my head.

"I'll meet you downstairs," she added.

"Do you know how to get to the ballroom?" I asked.

"I'll get someone to give me directions. I want to surprise you," she said, and I felt my lips curl up at one side.

"Alright then. I'll see you down there," I said.

"See you there."

**A.J.**

I stood in the doorway of the ballroom, smiling slightly in anticipation. The large double doors were propped open, so I probably stood out a good bit as I lingered in the doorway.

It was fifteen minutes until the party was due to start, but people of all sorts were already arriving. I looked around and spotted Damon, who looked as heartbreakingly perfect as always. I walked over and stood in front of him, smiling as his eyes roamed hungrily over my body. I had bought the dress in a boutique while he and I had been touring Venice, and had insisted that he didn't peek at it until I was actually wearing it. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I would be wearing it to a masquerade ball.

"You look…" his voice trailed off.

The dress had a corset bodice and a full skirt, both parts were black and lined with sapphire blue Swarovski crystals. It swept the floor, and my hair was swept into a complicated updo on the back of my head.

"You don't look so bad yourself," I said, leaning in to kiss him. His lips were warm and soft against mine, and I felt him deepen the kiss hungrily. I felt his tongue run along my lower lips, asking for entrance.

"We _are_ in public, Damon," I reminded him, pulling away. I smiled slightly, flattered I had affected him so deeply.

"Lovely," he muttered, eyes running down my body.

"My face is up here," I said, tilting his chin up to where his eyes were level with my face and not my chest.

"And your point?"

I sighed and shook my head. "Let's dance," I said as a slow, beautiful song started. It was "May I" by Trading Yesterday, and we began to waltz. It was one of the older ones, and I was glad I knew how to do it. It was about the intimacy of a near touch, and in the beginning out hands were extremely close but not touching.

When I finally stepped forward into his arms, our gazes were locked and I felt like we were two candle flames, catching each other and merging together, flaring higher and higher. We danced throughout the entire party, and by the time it was over his blue eyes were burning with desire.

"Upstairs," he said hoarsely, taking my arm.

"Damon!" someone called.

I turned to see Elena standing in the doorway of the ballroom, in a stunning red gown that swept the floor.

"What is she doing here?" Damon muttered, slightly irritated.

"I don't know," I sighed, biting back my frustration as we walked over.

"May I talk to Damon alone for a moment?" she asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"Um, yeah, sure," I said, walking away.

I walked out of the ballroom, into the next room, perching on an ottoman. There were still so many voices from the people left at the party that I couldn't hear their voices, but I started to worry when half an hour later he still wasn't back. I got up and walked back into the ballroom, looking for Damon.

I wasn't prepared for what I saw.

Elena had the collar of his shirt clenched between her fingers, and her mouth was pressed hungrily to his. His eyes were still open, as if he was shocked. But he didn't pull away. She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him to her.

Blinking back my tears, I stared at them in shock. Glancing my way, Damon caught my eye. He looked mortified, just as he should. Feeling tears streak down my face, I spun around and ran out of the hotel and onto the sidewalk. I felt my face transform with fury, and my face was wet with tears.

"A.J. wait!" Damon called after me.

I ignored him and continued running down the sidewalk, also ignoring the people that stared after me curiously.

"A.J. please!" he pleaded, catching up to me at vampire speed, not even caring about the people crowding the sidewalk.

"Leave me alone, Damon," I said to him.

"You don't understand. It wasn't Elena, it was Katherine," he explained.

"Oh because that makes it so much better!" I yelled, slapping him hard across the face.

"What am I? Was I just a time filler until you got your precious Katherine back?" I screamed, headless of the people milling about.

"Please let me explain-"

"Explain what? How good of a kisser she is?" I cut him off, my jaw clenching.

"She wouldn't let me go, I was not kissing her back. She is over three hundred years old! I could never overpower her," he said, his eyes begging me to understand. But I met him with a gaze that was hard and cold. I was angry and I was hurt.

"Go to hell," I spat. I knew that I must be a strange sight, with my face transformed but wet with tears. It only made me angrier that he was seeing me this weak, this fragile.

"A.J. I brought you here for a reason. To Italy, to this party. There was a reason behind _all_ of it. I wanted it to be perfect."

"You wanted _what_ to be perfect?" I demanded furiously.

"This."

He sunk to one knee in front of me, and pulled a small black box from the inner pocket of his jacket. He opened it, revealing the sparkling diamond ring nestled inside.

"A.J. North, will you marry me?"

* * *

_"Sometimes there are no words. No clever quotes to neatly sum up what's happened that day... sometimes the day just... ends."_

~Aaron Hotchner

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**So there it is, the end of Angel of Mercy. The sequel will include the conclusion to the end scene of this chapter, and it will also go more in depth where Harper is concerned. He will play a very big part in the sequel, as will Sam. (Note: Harper is in no relation to the Harper on The Vampire Diaries, they just happen to have the same name. But again: the two Harpers are completely different from one another).**

**The sequel will be called All About Us (after the T.A.T.U song) because it's a more in depth study of the Ocs, about their personalities and motivations. **

**With all that said, thank you so much to all of the amazing readers who have encouraged and supported this fic, and to everyone who has reviewed, you guys are great! And of course, thanks to drodgers89, for her constant help with my fan fictions :-)**


	26. Cause This Is Love And Life

**Author's Note:**

**This is originally from the sequel, All About Us, but I've decided to just add this in to the original and call it quits. I just can't get back my inspiration for this story, sorry! Thanks to everyone reading this :D**

* * *

**A.J.**

I looked down at him, feeling dizzy and incoherent. His question rang in my ears - _A.J. North, will you marry me?_ He'd brought me here for this reason, and this reason alone. Even after all we'd went through, after every battle we'd fought for each other, I had never imagined the sight before me: Damon, kneeling on the ground, a small box in his hand that held a diamond engagement ring, staring up at me with the sweetest, most hopeful expression I had ever seen. I started to cry again, taken aback by the violent rush of emotions that swept through me. _All emotions that human feel are intensified when they turn into vampires,_ Damon had once told me.

If I had ever doubted that, I never could again.

**Damon**

I stared up at A.J., feeling my fingers tremble as I held the small black box in the palm of my hand. The diamond glittered under the dull light of the streetlamp a few feet from us, and I felt it start to rain. The rain was ice cold as it started to soak us both.

I blinked away the water that as running from my hair down to my eyelashes, and I watched as A.J.'s face slowly relaxed back into it's human state. The hard cement of the cracked sidewalk bit into my knee as I knelt in front of her, but I would have stayed there forever if she'd asked me to. It felt like hours before she spoke, but it was probably only a few seconds. She choked the word, but I heard it loud and clear.

"Yes," she gasped.

I felt a grin spread across my face and I slid the ring on her finger, holding her gaze the entire time. I was completely unaware of the people surrounding us, some of them curiously watching the scene. I went to stand, but was knocked back down as she flung herself into my arms, and I felt my back hit the sidewalk. She leaned down and kissed me, and I wrapped my arms tightly around her waist.

_Mine. She's mine forever now,_ I thought, getting to my feet and sweeping her up into my arms in one fluid motion. The minute we got back to the hotel, I shot up to our room at vampire speed and pushed the door open after swiping the key card in the door.

"I'm so sorry I didn't trust you," A.J. whispered as I began trailing my lips down her neck.

I silenced her by kissing her hard and deep, and the physical attraction between us that always took control of me get again pulled me into its grasp. I pushed her against the wall and pressed the length of my body along hers, sliding my tongue into her mouth. Her legs wrapped around my waist, and desire shot through me.

A.J., with vampire speed, pulled my jacket and shirt off, pressing herself to me as she ran her hands up and down my chest. I laid her down and slid on top of her, pinning her wrists above her head. I was suddenly overcome with the need to control, to lead.

The rest of our clothing disappeared rapidly, and I began kissing down the length of her body. When I had returned my lips to hers, I could feel her raw desire and wanting for me. I pulled away from her mouth and gasped when I felt her fangs pierce my neck. She was still learning control, but I was hardly complaining. She and I exchanged blood regularly, and we both took great pleasure in it. My mind spun as she continued taking my blood, and I again gasped slightly with pleasure.

The second she pulled away, I was in her. In her deep, in her as fully as I could be.

**A.J.**

I lost track of time, but I think it was hours later when I was laying next to him, my left hand on his chest as I stared at my engagement ring. It was beautiful and unique, I had never seen anything like it. A diamond in the shape of a crescent moon was set into a platinum band, and I realized I hadn't read what it was engraved with yet.

I pulled it off my finger and glanced at the inside, feeling my eyes fill. It was simple, but it said more than a longer quote ever could.

_I would die for you, my love_

It was from the song "Make Me Wanna Die," but the quote made my breathing hitch. There was something about the sheer love and simplicity of it that made me wonder how I had ever told the man laying next to me to go to hell. Still smiling at the beauty of it, I slid the ring back on my finger and then remembered something.

"Oh my god, I have to call Sam!" I shrieked, suddenly realizing it. She was going to _flip._

"Well call her then," Damon murmured, half asleep.

"I am," I said, reaching over and pulling my cell phone from the nightstand. "Hello?" she answered after I dialed her number.

"Hi Sam, it's A.J.," I said, sitting up.

"Hello, part one of the lovebird pair. How's sexy stalker dude?" she asked.

"He's wonderful. And so am I, actually."

"I would ask why, but I have a hunch that involves no clothes, kissing, and well, you know the rest," she laughed.

"Well that's one reason,."

"What's the other reason?"

"I'm sort of getting, well…"

"You're getting _what_?" she demanded.

"'He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring and said marry me Juliet, you'll never have to be alone, I love you and that's all I really know,'" I quoted one of favorite songs by Taylor Swift, and she squealed on the other end of the line.

"Oh my _god_, you're getting _hitched_ to the sexy stalker dude!" she shrieked, and oddly enough, I heard my cousin in the background saying "A.J.'s marrying Damon? Yay, I've always wanted to go to a wedding!"

Well, that's my cousin for you.

"Um, Sam, what is Harper doing there?" I asked, my brow furrowing.

"He crashed on the couch last night. You should have seen it this morning, it was hilarious. My mom walks downstairs and he's sprawled out on the couch reading a magazine, and guess what he says? Really, guess," she laughs.

"No idea. Tell me," I laughed along with her.

"He says 'Morning.' Not 'I can explain why I'm here' or 'Your daughter said I could crash on the couch.' No, it was 'Morning,'" she said, exasperation filling her voice.

"I would ask what he was doing there, but I have a feeling it's personal," I said, my eyebrows lifting.

"No! Hell no! We did _not_ sleep together," she said immediately.

"Okay then. Anyways, will you be my maid of honor?" I asked.

"Honor? Me? Are you insane?" she asked, and I laughed softly, imaging a very confused Harper listening to one end of the conversation.

"How about you be my maid of…um…lacking honor?" I offered with a shrug.

"Sounds good. Harper, you're supposed to let the water boil before you drop the pasta!" she said to my cousin.

"Well it sounds like you have your hands full over there, so I'll let you go."

"Alright. See you when you get home. Oh, congrats, by the way," she added offhandedly.

"Thanks," I smiled, hanging up.

I lay there next to Damon, who was sound asleep. I thought about my upcoming wedding, about my dress, about the plans. I would love nothing more than to have it in the snow, but winter was already almost over. I quickly decided I would just take a year to plan it and then I could have my dream wedding in the snow. I had always imagined an outdoor wedding in the snow, with ice coating the surfaces and the ethereal look of everything being blanketed in white.

I fell asleep thinking about it, with my hand resting on Damon's chest and my engagement ring sparkling under the moonlight that came through the window, which the curtains were drawn away from. I could have never asked for a more perfect life, a more perfect fiancé, a more perfect place to be in the world.

My last waking thought was _So this is what love is. Laying together in Venice, Italy, engaged and more in love than ever. Love is for eternity._

* * *

"_And when you need a place to run to, for better or for worse, I got you. 'Cause this is love and life, and nothing we can both control." _~Leona Lewis


End file.
